Hannes Stelzer

Austrian actor Hannes Stelzer (1910-1944) was a popular Ufa hero during the Nazi period. He appeared in 18 films, including five for director Karl Ritter. In military service, the Lufwaffe pilot died at the end of World War II.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 215, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann.

Handsome Rising Film Star

Hannes Stelzer was born in Graz, Austria in 1910. He was the eldest son of poor, travelling actors. Hannes often had to change schools because of the profession of his parents.

He had his first theatre experience in Mühlhausen in Thuringia, when his mother proposed her son for a children's dance scene in the operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat). On his own initiative he applied successfully for the Vienna drama school at the age of fourteen. He lived in Vienna at the house of an uncle and earned the money for his studies as a carpenter.

Srelzer made his stage debut as the old Klinkert in Hasemanns Töchter by Adolph L’Arronge, but did it as a volunteer. In 1928 he received his first engagement at the Neues Theater (New Theatre) in Frankfurt am Main, and moved in 1931 to Bremen.

Here Stelzer played Romeo, but he also had parts in modern plays. After three years, Stelzer got an engagement in Darmstadt at the Landestheater (National Theatre), where he could play the great classical roles.

In 1935 he was considered for the role of the young Friedrich (Frederic) in the biopic Der junge und alte König/The Young and the Old King (Hans Steinhoff, 1935) with famous actor-producer Emil Jannings as his father. After first committing to the role, he eventually declined it in order to take up another stage engagement.

However, Emil Jannings was impressed by Stelzer and got him a role as a student of professor Traumulus (Jannings) in the film Traumulus/The Dreamer (Carl Froelich, 1935). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Keeping his tendency to overact in check, Emil Jannings delivers one of his best and subtlest performances in this film.”

After that, Stelzer’s activity shifted more and more to the cinema. The handsome rising film star played in comedies, costume dramas, and sophisticated contemporary films and quickly became a popular Ufa star.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 1882/1, 1937-1938 (signed in 1939). Photo: Sandau, Berlin / Tobis.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3134/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

The Idea of a Courageous Hero

Hannes Stelzer’s looks corresponded to the German ideas of a courageous hero and he celebrated great successes as a tightrope walker in Truxa (Hans H. Zerlett, 1936) opposite La Jana, and as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Eine kleine Nachtmusik/A Little Night Music (Leopold Hainisch, 1939).

Jan Onderwater at IMDb is not impressed by his performance in Truxa: “Blond haired Hannes Stelzer is a kind of vaudeville-Siegfried staring as if he is constantly amazed at appearing in this film at all; he was right.”

Other popular films were Der Herrscher/The Ruler (Veit Harlan, 1937) in which he played the son of a great industrialist (again Emil Jannings), the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Der Spieler/The Gambler (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1938) starring Lida Baarová and Albrecht Schoenhals, and in the German version of the French-German circus drama Les gens du voyage/Fahrendes Volk/Travelling People (Jacques Feyder, 1938) in which he played the son of Hans Albers and Françoise Rosay.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Stelzer could make less films. He was a pilot in Germany's Luftwaffe and between film roles took on combat missions.

Still he played starring roles, such as a Luftwaffe pilot in the propaganda film Stukas (1941). Director of the film was Luftwaffe Major Karl Ritter and the two worked five times together. The first had been the WWI epic Unternehmen Michael/Enterprise Michael (1937), followed by Bal Paré (1940) and Über alles in der Welt (1941).

 Stelzer’s final film role was in Ritter's propaganda film Besatzung Dora/The Crew of the Dora (Karl Ritter, 1943), which finished filming in January 1943. In March of that year the film was banned from being released because scenes shot on the Leningrad front, in North Africa, and in western France could not be used, as German defeats and problems on the war fronts made the film untenable.

Around Christmas 1944, Hannes Stelzer died in a plane crash at the Eastern front near Komárom in Hungary. According to Wehrmacht reports, he crashed when he flew in a snowstorm in a high-voltage line, but probably his plane was shot down by the Soviets.

Hannes Stelzer was married with the actress Maria Bard, who had died shortly before him.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2696/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross-Verlag. Photo: Bavaria-Filmkunst.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Jan Onderwater (IMDb), German Films Poster Collection, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

André Claveau

From the 1940s to the 1960s, André Claveau (1911–2003) was a popular singer and film actor in France. He won the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Dors, mon amour' (Sleep, My Love).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 295. Photo: Ch. Vandamme, Paris.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 160. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Prince of the Charm song

André Claveau was born in Paris, France in 1911 (some sources say 1915). He was the only son of an upholsterer and as a young boy, he decided to become a cabinetmaker. In 1919, he became an apprentice to the French Compagnie des Arts, founded by André Mare and Louis Süe. He studied woodworking and cabinetmaking and later continued his training at the Ecole Boulle.

André worked as a graphic artist and jewellery designer. He created theatre sets (including for 'L'Hermine' by Jean Anouilh), and playbills for such artists as Damia and Jean Lumière. His singing career began in 1936 when he participated in the amateur contest Premières Chances (First Opportunities) organised by the radio station Le Poste Parisien. He won with the song 'Chez moi'. He was accompanied by the pianist and composer Alec Siniavine who went on to accompany him at subsequent performances.

During the next six years, Claveau moved on from the third, to the second and to the first part of the program in various music halls. In 1938, he had a hit with the song 'Quand un Petit Oiseau' (When a Little Bird) and he made his film debut in Champions de France (Willy Rozier, 1938).

In 1942, during the occupation of France by the Nazis, Claveau was spotted by impresario Marc Duthyl and his reputation grew. He had smash hits with 'Ah! C'qu'on s'aimait' (1941) and 'Mon chemin n'est pas le votre' (1942). His warm voice and charisma allowed him to become the host of a variety show on Radio Paris. After the war, he was banned for two years off the radio, because of his activities during the war. Claveau returned to the radio as a singer and had several successes such as 'Une Chanson à la Diable' (1949), 'Marjolaine' and 'Deux petits chaussons'.

Claveau was called the "Prince de la chanson de charme" (Prince of the charm song). He was also the first to interpret the evergreen 'Bon anniversaire' (Happy Birthday), written by Jacques Larue and composed by Louiguy. The song was part of the soundtrack of the film Un jour avec vous/A day with you (Jean-René Legrand, 1951).


French postcard by O.P, Paris, no. 117. Photo: Le Studio.


French postcard by O.P, Paris, no. 94. Photo: Le Studio.

Eurovision Song Contest

Between 1947 and 1955, André Claveau appeared in numerous French films in which he sang his hit songs. Among them were Le destin s'amuse/Fate has fun (Emil E. Reinert, 1947) with Dany Robin, Sous le ciel de Paris/Under the Sky of Paris (Julien Duvivier, 1951) and Cœur-sur-Mer (Jacques Daniel-Norman 1951) with Armand Bernard.

He also starred in such film comedies as Pas de vacances pour Monsieur le Maire/No Vacation for Mr. Mayor (Maurice Labro, 1951), with Grégoire Aslan and Louis de Funès, and the short film Le Huitième Art et la Manière/The Eighth Art and Way (Maurice Regamey, 1952) with Christian Alers and Louis de Funès. In the Franco-Italian comedy-drama Saluti e baci/Love and Kisses (Maurice Labro, Giorgio Simonelli, 1953) a group of singers get together en masse to help those less fortunate than themselves.

Songs like 'Moulin Rouge' (1953), and 'La Complainte de la Butte' (1955) maintained his popularity through the 1950s. Claveau also performed the song 'Je t'aime bien pourtant' in the classic musical French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1955) starring Jean Gabin and Françoise Arnoul.

In 1958, he won the third edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. He sang 'Dors, mon amour' (Sleep, My Love) with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and with lyrics by Hubert Giraud. The Swiss entry, Lys Assia came in second. In later years, Claveau was a few times the French vote announcer. His final film was Prisonniers de la brousse/Prisoners of the Jungle (Willy Rozier, 1960) with Georges Marchal.

The Yé-yé music wave in the early 1960s affected Claveau’s popularity and his successes diminished. At the end of the 1960s, Claveau decided to finish his career. He retired completely and never performed again. At the age of 91, André Claveau died in Brassac, France in 2003. He was not married and had no children.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 556, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


André Claveau sings 'Dors, Mon Amour' at the Eurovision Song Contest 1958. Source: The Euro Song Contest (YouTube).

Sources: Dave Thompson (AllMusic), Du temps des cerises aux feuilles mortes (French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 28 September 2023.

Heinz Ohlsen

Blonde German actor Heinz Ohlsen (1922-1999) appeared as a young man in a handful of German films of the early war years. Ten years later he continued his career with a few more film roles.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, nr. G 146, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

The Hitlerjugend Market

Heinz Ohlsen was born as Heinz Gustav Hans Oehlschlager in Berlin, Germany, in 1922.

The handsome blonde boy started his career in 1940 with bit parts in the comedies Zwei Welten/Two Worlds (Gustaf Gründgens, 1949) and Der Kleinstadtpoet/Poet of a Small Town (Josef von Báky, 1940) with Paul Kemp.

The following year he played a young Irishman in the Nazi-made anti-British propaganda film Mein Leben für Irland/My Life for Ireland (Max W. Kimmich, 1941) starring Anna Dammann and René Deltgen.

Set in an English boarding school, Mein Leben für Irland tells of the Irish revolt against British domination. The sons of Irish rebels are sent to an English school to become good British patriots, but they secretly await the day they can fight for their country’s independence against the British, who are depicted as treacherous oppressors bent on world hegemony.

Mein Leben für Irland  was aimed largely at the Hitlerjugend market and was directed with assurance by Max Kimmich, who happened to be Joseph Goebbels’ brother-in-law.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3203/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3456/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3562/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.

Love at the Wheel

That same year Heinz Ohlsen played the son of Willy Fritsch in Leichte Muse/Easy Muse (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1941).

He appeared opposite another famous actor, Heinrich George, in the romantic drama Schicksal/Fate (Géza von Bolváry, 1942).

After this film, the film career of the still very young actor would be interrupted for nearly a decade. He probably had to join the German army but there is no information on the internet about this period in his life.

Eight years later Ohlsen returned to the screen in the short Amor am Steuer/Love at the Wheel (Günther Hassert, 1950) with Sonja Masur.

The following year he played a supporting part in the crime film Grenzstation 58/Boundary Station 58 (Harry Hasso, 1951) starring Hansi Knoteck and Mady Rahl.

His last film role was a supporting part in the Heinz Rühmann comedy Der eiserne Gustav/The Iron Gustav (Georg Hurdalek, 1958). Based on a true event the film shows a coachman taking a journey from Berlin to Paris in 1928.

Heinz Ohlsen died in 1999. He was 76, but we did not find more information about him.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3242/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no A 3697/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 107, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), International Historic Films and IMDb.

Tora Teje

Swedish stage actress Tora Teje (1893-1970) starred in several classics of the Scandinavian silent cinema.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 113. Photo: Hovatelier Jaeger. Tora Teje in the play 'Rödakorssystern' (Red Cross Sister) by Gustaf Collijn. The play premiered on 14 March 1919 at the Svenska Teatern. Director was Gunnar Klintberg and her co-star was Gösta Ekman.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, No. 1097/6. Tora Teje and Lars Hanson in Erotikon (Mauritz Stiller, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 321. Photo: Hovatelier Jaeger, 1922.

Kleptomaniac

Tora Teje was the stage name of Tora Adelhejt Sylwander-Johansson. She was born in the St. Mary Magdalene parish in the Södermalm quarter of Stockholm, Sweden in 1893.

Tora studied at Dramatens elevskola, the Royal Dramatic Theatre School in Stockholm, from 1908 to 1911.

During her whole career - apart from the years 1913-1922, she was engaged at Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, where she played many leading roles.

She played the title roles of Jean Racine's 'Phaedra' and Euripides' 'Medea', Indra's daughter in August Strindberg's 'Ett drömspel' (A Dream Play), Nina Leeds in Eugene O'Neill's 'Strange Interlude' and Christine Mannon in O’Neill’s 'Mourning Becomes Elektra'.

In the cinema, Tora Teje had her breakthrough with the romantic comedy Erotikon (1920) by Mauritz Stiller. It is based on the 1917 play 'A kék róka' by Ferenc Herczeg. The story deals with a professor (Anders de Wahl) who is obsessed with the sexual life of bugs but doesn’t notice his wife (Teje) is courted by two men. One of the two (Lars Hanson) is – unjustly - jealous of the other. The film became a commercial success and was sold to 45 markets abroad.

Two years later, Teje played a kleptomaniac, indicated as ‘Modern Hysteric’, in Benjamin Christensen's Häxan/Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922). Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was made as a documentary but contains dramatized sequences that are comparable to horror films.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Beginning in a deceptively sedate fashion with a series of woodcuts and engravings (a technique later adopted by RKO producer Val Lewton), the film then shifts into gear with a progression of dramatic vignettes, illustrating the awesome power of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. So powerful are some of these images that even some modern viewers will avert their eyes from the screen."

With Christensen's meticulous recreation of medieval scenes and the lengthy production period, the film was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made, costing nearly two million Swedish kronor. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden, the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1093/2. Photo: Svenska Biografteatren AB. Tora Teje in Karin Ingmarsdotter/God/s Way/Karin Daughter of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1920), starring. It is the second part in Sjöström's large-scale adaption of Selma Lagerlöf's novel 'Jerusalem', following Sons of Ingmar from the year before, and depicting chapters three and four from the novel.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1093/4. Photo: Svenska Biografteatren AB. Tora Teje and Tor Weiden in Karin Ingmarsdotter/God/s Way/Karin Daughter of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1093/7. Photo: Tora Teje in Karin Ingmarsdotter (Victor Sjöström, 1920).

Oh God, we had fun!

Previously, Victor Sjöström had directed her in two films, Karin Ingmarsdotter/Karin, Daughter of Ingmar (1920) and the Gothic drama Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (1920).

Karin Ingmarsdotter/God's Way (1920) is the second part in Sjöström's large-scale adaption of Selma Lagerlöf's novel Jerusalem, following Ingmarssönerna/Sons of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1919), and depicting chapter three and four from the novel. Teje played the title role as the daughter of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström). The critical reception of the film was unenthusiastic and Sjöström decided to not film any more parts. Eventually, the suite was finished by Gustaf Molander in 1926.

Klostret i Sendomir, based on a story by Franz Grillparzer, deals with a 17th-century monk (Tore Svennberg) who tells two visitors about a mighty count who discovers that his unfaithful wife has a longstanding affair with her own cousin and that even his daughter is not his own. He had to use all his resources to build the monastery where they are now staying. At the end of the film, it is revealed that the monk is in fact the count himself.

Teje also acted in Familjens traditioner/Family Traditions (Rune Carlsten, 1920) with Gösta Ekman and Mary Johnson.

She had the lead in Norrtullsligan/The Nurtull Gang (Per Lindberg, 1923) about low-paid female clerks who go on strike, and acted in 33.333 (Gustav Molander, 1924) with Einar Hanson as the winner of a lottery ticket.

Her last silent performances were as Marguerite Gauthier in Damen med kameliorna/The Lady with the Camelias (Olof Molander, 1925), based on Alexandre Dumas fils’ famous play and with Uno Henning as Armand Duval, and as Signe Rosenkrans in the August Strindberg adaptation Giftas/Getting Married (Olof Molander, 1926), again with Henning.

After years on stage Teje returned one time to the screen in 1939, acting opposite Victor Sjöström in Gubben kommer/The Old Man is Coming, based on Gösta Gustaf-Janson’s 'Gud, vad vi haft roligt!' (Oh God, we had fun!), tells about himself and about his mother.

Tora Teje died in 1970 in Stockholm. She was 77.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/6. Photo: Tora Teje and Richard Lund in Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/8. Photo: Tore Svennberg and Tora Teje in Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1092/14. Photo: Tora Teje in Klostret i Sendomir/The Monastery of Sendomir (Victor Sjöström, 1920).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Swedish and English), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 24 August 2021.

Blanchette Brunoy

French actress Blanchette Brunoy (1915-2005) appeared in over 90 film and television productions between 1936 and 1998. She is possibly best-remembered for her roles in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine (1938), Jacques Becker's comedy-thriller Goupi mains rouges (1943), and Marcel Carné's La Marie du port (1950).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 12.

An abundance of authentic gallic atmosphere

Blanchette Brunoy was born Blanche Bilhaud in Paris in 1915. She was the daughter of a physician, Marcel Bilhaud, and the niece and goddaughter of writer Georges Duhamel. Thanks to him, she discovered the theatre.

As a young girl, she studied acting at the Conservatoire de Paris under André Brunot. One of her first film roles was an uncredited bit part in Un mauvais garçon/Counsel for Romance (Jean Boyer, 1936) featuring Danielle Darrieux and Henri Garat. She played a victim of Jules Berry in the French-Italian film drama Le voleur de femmes/The Woman Thief (Abel Gance, 1936). On stage, she participated in the creation of the Chevaliers de la table ronde/Knights of the Round Table by Jean Cocteau in 1937.

On-screen, she became known as Colette’s heroin Claudine in Claudine à l’école/Pauline at school (Serge de Poligny, 1937). She played the supporting part of Flore in the classic La Bête Humaine/The Human Beast (Jean Renoir, 1938), based on the novel by Émile Zola, and starring Jean Gabin and Simone Simon.

More supporting parts followed in Cavalcade d'amour/Love Cavalcade (Raymond Bernard, 1940), written by Jean Anouilh. First, she often played the type of the sweet young woman and later that of the balanced, calm and devoted wife or the petty-bourgeois mother. During the occupation of France by the Nazis, she starred in films like Au Bonheur des Dames/Shop Girls of Paris (André Cayatte, 1943) opposite Michel Simon, and Le Voyageur sans Bagages/The Traveler without Luggage (1943), directed by famous stage author Jean Anouilh who adapted it from his own 1936 play.

Her most popular role was ‘Goupi-Muguet’ in Goupi Mains Rouges/It Happened at the Inn (Jean Becker, 1943), a subversive detective story with a literary style about a murder among a scruffy family of peasants known as the Goupis. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Nearly plotless, Goupi Mains Rogues offers an unforgettable cast of characters and an abundance of authentic Gallic atmosphere.”


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 34. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 89. Paris. Photo: Films Eclair Journal.


French postcard by Editions P.I,, Paris, offered by Les Carbines Korès, 'Carbopolane', no. 89. Photo: Éclair Journal.

Controversial subject matter

After the war, Blanchette Brunoy co-starred with Pierre Fresnay in Vient de paraître/Just out (Jacques Houssin, 1949). Then she played one of her best-known parts as the mistress of Jean Gabin in the romantic drama La Marie du port/Marie of the Port (Marcel Carné, 1950), based on a novel by Georges Simenon. James Travers at French Films: “Partly on account of its controversial subject matter, but mainly because Carné's style of cinema was going out of fashion, La Marie du port was ill-received by many critics on its first release. Whilst it may not match the excellence of the director's pre-WWII films, it is nonetheless a work of great merit - well-scripted, attractively shot in the stark poetic realist style of Carné's earlier films, and with some nuanced performances from a talented cast.”

In the drama Tourments/Agonies (Jacques Daniel-Norman, 1954), Blanchette Brunoy and Tino Rossi played a couple who have adopted a little boy whose real mother (Jacqueline Porel) assigns a ruthless private detective (Louis de Funès) to kidnap the kid. Later films include the comedies Les Veinards/The Lucky (Philippe de Broca, Jean Girault, 1963), and Bébert et l'omnibus/Bebert and the Train (Yves Robert, 1963).

An interesting experiment is Françoise ou La vie conjugale/Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Françoise (André Cayatte, 1964), telling the story of a marriage break-up told from the man's (Jacques Charrier) point of view, and the film's companion piece, Jean-Marc ou La vie conjugale/Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc (André Cayatte, 1964), which tells the story from the woman's (Marie-José Nat) point of view.

That year, Brunoy also appeared in L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot/Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, directed, written and produced by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and starring Romy Schneider. In 1964, the film remained unfinished when Clouzot suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised, but 45 years later, in 2009, it was presented as a semi-documentary by Serge Bromberg. Bromberg made his 94 minutes documentary with material selected from 15 hours (185 reels) of found scenes. In 2010 it received the César Award for Best Documentary.

From then on, Blanchette Brunoy worked mostly on television and the stage. In 1984, director Edouard Molinaro asked her for a part in L'Amour en douce/Love on the Quiet (Edouard Molinaro, 1985) with Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Béart. One of her last film parts was in the crime comedy ...Comme elle respire/White Lies (Pierre Salvadori, 1998) starring Marie Trintignant. In 2005, Blanchette Brunoy died in Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence of old age. She was 89. Brunoy was married to the actors Robert Hommet (?–1958) and Maurice Maillot (1961–1968), until their deaths.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 20. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 106. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), James Travers (French Films), Christian Grenier (DVD Toile.com - French), Cinémemorial (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 19 August 2023.

Dorothy Wilding

Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) was a noted English society photographer with studios in London and New York. Wilding photographed many British film stars in the 1920s and 1930s, but was also the first woman to be appointed as the Official Royal Photographer.


Madeleine Carroll. British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 352a. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.


Madeleine Carroll. British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 352b. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

Brightly Lit Linear Compositions

Dorothy Frances Edith Wilding was born in 1893. She was the last of a large family of 10 children who lived near Gloucester.

Unwanted by her parents, Dorothy was passed on to a childless aunt and uncle in Cheltenham, aged just four. She wanted to become an actress or artist but this career was disallowed by her uncle, so she chose the art of photography.

One day she saw a camera in a shop window in Cheltenham, and according to her memoirs she thought: ‘If they won’t allow me to be an actress, or paint portraits, I’ll do it through the camera instead’.

At the age of 16 Wilding taught herself the art of photography, from lighting to retouching. She finally persuaded her family to let her move to London. She began her photographic career as an apprentice to Bond Street photographer Marian Neilson.

By 1915 she had saved enough money to lease a studio in George Street, Portman Square. She took her first pictures by artificial light, designing a system of tracks that fixed to the ceiling for her two 1,000 watt lamps with pale blue reflectors.

In the 1920s and 1930s, she photographed several film stars including Jessie Matthews, Diana Wynyard, Anna May Wong, Madeleine Carroll, Ivor Novello, Maurice Chevalier, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

According to the National Portrait Gallery website, she is best known for her brightly lit linear compositions photographed in high key lighting against a white background. The success of the Wilding Look was clearly based upon her superb lighting techniques, her high standard of retouching and finishing, and her society connections.

She portrayed such celebrities as Noël Coward, Cecil Beaton, George Bernard Shaw, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Aldous Huxley, and Barbara Hutton. By 1929 she had already moved studio a few times, and employed seven assistants.


Ivor Novello. British postcard in the Picturegoer series by real Photograph, London, no. 39c. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.


Matheson Lang. British postcard in the Picturegoer series, no. 87A. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

A Sitting Booked For A Mrs. Simpson

Dorothy Wilding shot her first British Royal Family portrait of the 26-year-old Prince George (later Duke of Kent) in 1928. Six years later Wilding was selected to take the official engagement photographs of Prince George before his marriage to Princess Marina of Greece.

In 1935 a sitting booked for a Mrs. Simpson on a Friday found Wilding away from the studio at her country cottage. She had to direct the shoot down the telephone to her leading deputy camera operator.

Wallis Warfield Simpson was the future Duchess of Windsor, and she was accompanied to the studio by Edward, Prince of Wales at a time when the relationship was not mentioned in the British press. A hand-coloured image from this session would later appear on the cover of Time magazine, marking Wallis as 'Woman of the Year'.

A further important series of Royal Sittings were also taken in her absence when Wilding was based in America. This sitting was eventually followed by the famous Wilding portrait of the newly ascended Elizabeth II that was used for a series of definitive postage stamps of Great Britain used between 1952 and 1967, and a series of Canadian stamps in use from 1954 to 1962.

A previous portrait sitting of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of George VI, had turned into a double portrait of the royal couple and was adapted for the 1937 Coronation issue stamp.

That portrait led to Wilding being the first woman to be appointed as the Official Royal Photographer for the 1937 Coronation.


John Gielgud. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 762A. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.


John Gielgud. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 762. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

Clearly Ahead Of Their Time

In 1937, Dorothy Wilding also opened a second photo studio in New York. There she photographed Fannie Hurst, Tallulah Bankhead, Gracie Fields and Gertrude Lawrence at the time of her appearance in Pygmalion.

In 1940, a German bomb destroyed her London studio. She went to New York with her ailing husband, designer Rufus Leighton-Pearce, who she had met in the 1920s when he created a revolutionary art deco design for her studio. He died there and she dedicated much her time to building her US business.

In the 1940s and 1950s her subjects included Dame Barbara Cartland, Dame Daphne du Maurier, Sir John Gielgud, Harry Belafonte, Yehudi Menuhin, William Somerset Maugham, and Yul Brynner.

She is also known for her pictorial style nude photographs which include the dancer Jacques Cartier and the artist's model Rhoda Beasley photographed shortly before her early tragic death.

John Chillingworth: “Her 1930s commercial and advertising images were clearly ahead of their time, preceding 1960’s eroticism by 30 years!”

Wilding’s relationship with the Royal family, as their favoured photographer, continued right up until 1958 when she decided to sell her Bond Street studio, aged 65. She had closed the 56th Street, Manhattan, studio in 1957.

Her autobiography In Pursuit of Perfection was published in 1958. After her retirement Wilding faded from the public consciousness, and she passed away in a nursing home in 1976. At the time her death hardly got even a line of obituary.

Her surviving archives were presented to the National Portrait Gallery by her sister Mrs. Susan Morton and formed the basis of a major NPG retrospective exhibition and catalogue in 1991, The Pursuit of Perfection.


Elizabeth Allan. British postcard. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.


Yvonne Arnaud. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 378A. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.


Dorothy Dickson. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no T4a. Photo: Dorothy Wilding.

This is the seventh post in a series on film star photographers. Earlier posts were on the Reutlinger Studio in Paris, Italian star photographer Attilio Badodi, the German photographer Ernst Schneider, Dutch photo artist Godfried de Groot, Milanese photographers Arturo Varischi and Giovanni Artico and on the French Studio Lorelle.

Sources: John Chillingworth, National Portrait Gallery, Stamp Online, and Wikipedia. See also the Flickr set on Wilding by dovima_is_devine_II.

Franca Parisi

Beautiful and elegant Franca Parisi (1933) is an Italian actress who appeared in German and Italian films of the 1950s. During the 1960s she was mainly cast as a sexy but second rate Sophia Loren in low-budget Italian adventure and horror films.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam (Dutch licency holder for Universum-Film Aktien-gesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 1086. Photo: Ufa/Film-Foto. Publicity still for Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958).

Sexy Girlfriend

Franca Parisi, also known as Franca Parisi Strahl and Margaret Taylor, was born in 1933 in Palermo, Italy.

She attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and appeared in supporting parts in such Italian films as Il prezzo dell'onore/Pride (Ferdinando Baldi, 1953), the religious Il figlio dell'uomo/The son of man (Virgilio Sabel, 1954) and L'angelo bianco/The white angel (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1955) starring Yvonne Sanson.

She also appeared in German co-productions like Die heilige Lüge/Sacred Lie (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1954), the Heimatfilm Heidemelodie/Melody of the Moors (Ulrich Erfurth, 1956) and the tearjerker Die Heilige und ihr Narr/The Saint and Her Fool (Gustav Ucicky, 1957).

She then appeared in two successful Romy Schneider films, the last part of the Sissi-trilogy, Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin/Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (Ernst Marischka, 1957) and Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958) in which she appeared as the sexy girlfriend of Paul Hubschmid.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Berolina / Constantin / Wesel.

An Overcooked Pizza Roll with Eyes

Franca Parisi started the 1960s with the entertaining low-budget horrorfilm Seddok, l'erede di Satana/Atom Age Vampire (Anton Giulio Majano, 1960), produced by Mario Bava.

According to Cavett Binion at AllMovie this is a “less-stylish variant on Franju's classic Les Yeux Sans Visage, (which) borrows heavily from that film's plot to tell the tale of a scientist who employs a radical new procedure to restore the beauty of a young hoochie-koochie dancer disfigured in a car accident.

All goes well after the bandages come off... but (…) the young lass begins transforming into a monster - which, despite the title, is not really a vampire, but more like something resembling an overcooked pizza roll with eyes.” Franca appeared as the beautiful assistant of the mad scientist.

Next she co-starred in the adventure films Capitano di ventura/Rampage of Evil (Angelo Dorigo, 1961) with Gérard Landry, and L'ammutinamento/White Slave Ship (1961) starring Pier Angeli.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1367. Photo: Berolina / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Die heilige Lüge/Sacred Lie (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1954).

Biblical Epic

Franca Parisi appeared as Margaret Taylor in the Biblical epic Il vecchio testamento/The Old Testament (Gianfranco Parolini, 1962) starring bodybuilder Brad Harris, and in the Peplum I dieci gladiatori/The Ten Gladiators (Gianfranco Parolini, 1963).

In the second half of the 1960s she often appeared on TV in series as Le avventure di Laura Storm/The Adventures of Laura Storm (1965) and Le inchieste del commissario Maigret/The investigations of Inspector Maigret (1966) with Gino Cervi as Maigret.

She also worked in the theatre, although she generally played supporting parts as the second or third woman. Franca Parisi continued to work in the Italian theatre and the cinema till the end of the 1960’s.

Her last films were the Greek-Italian romantic drama O lipotaktis/The Mandrake (Christos Kefalas, 1970) and Armida, il dramma di una sposa/Armida, the drama of a wife (Bruno Mattei, 1970) in which she played the title role.

In the early 1970s she appeared again as Margaret Taylor in small parts in British TV series like Z Cars (1973) and Doctor at Sea (1974).

Franca Parisi then retired. She had been married to Austrian actor Erwin Strahl, with whom she co-starred in Die heilige Lüge/Sacred Lie (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1954).


English leader and first scenes of Seddok, l'erede di Satana/Atom Age Vampire (1960). Source: Wowvidfreak99 (YouTube).


Trailer of Scampolo (1958). Source: www.ischia.org (YouTube).

Sources: Cavett Binion (AllMovie), Mymovies.it (Italian) and IMDb.

Heinz Rühmann

Actor, director and producer Heinz Rühmann (1902-1994) was one of Germany's most popular film stars and played in more than 100 films over nearly 70 years. He was a favourite actor of Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels but also of Anne Frank. She pasted his postcard on the wall of her room in her family's hiding place during the war, where it can still be seen today.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 8247/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox / Badal.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6341/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Deutsche Lichtspiel-Syndikat (DLS). Publicity photo for the comedy Der Stolz der 3. Kompanie/The Pride of the Third Company (Fred Sauer, 1932).

Mean Son

Heinrich Wilhelm Rühmann was born in Essen, Germany, in 1902. He was born as one of three children (he had two sisters) to Hermann and Margarethe Rühmann. After his parents had divorced in 1916, his father committed suicide.

In 1919 Heinz decided to take acting lessons and six months later he got his first theatre engagement at the Lobe and Thalia theatre.

His first film part was in the silent film Das Deutsche Mutterherz/The German Mother's Heart (Géza von Bolváry, 1926) as a mean son who beats his mother (Margarete Kupfer).

After the introduction of the sound film, Ufa Producer Erich Pommer engaged the young actor for Die Drei von der Tankstelle/Three Good Friends (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930). His cheeky and cheerful role in this successful film operetta at the side of the dream couple Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey led to immediate stardom.

Rühmann was signed on by the Ufa and in the following years, he became one of the busiest comedians of the German cinema. His successes included Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht/Looking for His Murderer (Robert Siodmak, 1931) and Der Stolz der 3. Kompanie/The Pride of the Third Company (Fred Sauer, 1932).

According to Filmportal.de, Rühmann predominantly played roguish, street-smart characters who get on in their life by small cheatings and cheekiness but meet their fate and all contradictions surrounding it with indifference.

He found ideal complementing film partners in the comedians Theo Lingen and Hans Moser in such films as Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin/My Wife, the Fraud (Kurt Gerron, 1931), Man braucht kein Geld/No Money Is Needed (Carl Boese, 1932) and 13 Stühle/13 Chairs (E.W. Emo, 1938).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6564/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berkin. Photo: Tobis-Schmoll.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 189/1. Photo: Elite-Cinema. Publicity still for Heimkehr ins Glück/Return to Happiness (Carl Boese, 1933).


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Cine-Allianz. Collection: Miss Mertens.

Jewish Wife

Although Heinz Rühmann never supported the Nazi regime, his career survived – and flourished - only after he divorced his Jewish wife, Maria Bernheim. She married the Swedish actor Rolf von Nauckhoff and thus got the departure permission to Sweden. Rühmann supported her financially during the war and she survived the Holocaust. After the war the couple explained on German television that pressure by the Nazis had forced them to separate.

Two films which marked the height of his career in this period were Der Mustergatte/Model Husband (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937) and Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war/The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (Karl Hartl, 1937). In the latter he starred as the reserved but smart partner of Hans Albers.

In 1938, he directed his first film Lauter Lügen/Many Lies (1938) starring Hertha Feiler, who later became his second wife. Hertha had a Jewish grandfather, a fact that caused Rühmann again problems with the Nazi cultural authorities. However, he retained his reputation as an apolitical star during the entire Nazi era.

Also from 1938 on, he produced his own films as well as films by other directors with the production company Terra. Among those films were Der Florentiner Hut/The Leghorn Hat (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1939), Kleider machen Leute/Fine feathers make fine birds (Helmut Käutner, 1940) and Quax, der Bruchpilot (Kurt Hoffmann, 1941).

From 1938 to 1943 he also played at the Preussische Staatstheater in Berlin and was awarded Staatsschauspieler (National Actor) in 1940.

One of his most popular and best films was Die Feuerzangenbowle/The Fire-Tongs Bowl(Helmut Weiss, 1944), a nostalgic and very funny comedy about mistaken identities. The premiere of Die Feuerzangenbowle was forbidden by the Nazi film censor for 'disrespect for authority', according to Wikipedia. Through his good relationships with the regime, however, Rühmann was able to screen the film in public. He brought the film to the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze for a private screening for Hermann Göring and others. Afterward, Göring was able to get the ban on the film lifted by Adolf Hitler.

He was a favourite actor of both Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In August 1944, Goebbels put Rühmann on the Gottbegnadeten list of indispensable actors and thus was spared having to take part in the war effort. At the end of the war he was forced to witness the rape of his wife Hertha Feiler by Russian soldiers in his Berlin villa.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3535/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra. Probably a publicity still for Quax, der Bruchpilot (Kurt Hoffmann, 1941).


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3852/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra. Heinz Rühmann in Die Feuerzangenbowle/The Punch Bowl (Helmut Weiss, 1944).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3227/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Baumann.


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

Working Prohibition

After the Second World War, Heinz Rühmann's career had a tough start. First he was confronted with a working prohibition by the Allies. He toured the part of Germany occupied by the Soviets with his own production of Der Mustergatte/Model Husband and in 1947 he staged the play in Munich and Berlin.

In that year, he also founded the film company Comedia together with Alf Teich. They had a critical success with Berliner Ballade/The Berliner (Robert A. Stemmle, 1948), a satiric look at life in postwar Berlin, but Comedia went bankrupt in 1952.

Producer Gyula Trebitsch helped him get a comeback as an actor with Keine Angst vor grossen Tieren/No Fear for Big Animals (Ulrich Erfurth, 1953) . Subsequently his roles became more and more tragicomic.

He established himself again as a star with the title role of the internationally acclaimed Der Hauptmann von Köpenick/The Captain from Köpenick (Helmut Käutner, 1956). The Oscar-nominated film told the true story of a Prussian cobbler, Wilhelm Voigt, who dressed up as an army officer and took over the town hall in Köpenick. In the days of the German Empire, the army had an almost sacred status, and this cobbler embarrassed army officers and civil servants, who obeyed him without question.

Other big hits were the thriller Es geschah am hellichten Tag/It Happened in Broad Daylight (Ladislao Vajda, 1958) and the satire Der brave Soldat Schwejk/The Good Soldier Schweik (Axel von Ambesser, 1960) based on the novels by Jaroslav Hašek.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 213, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3555, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


German postcard by K & B / Filmwelt Berlin Archiv für Film-Geschichte, no. 57. Photo: Deutsche London Film / T. von Mindszenty. Publicity still for Keine Angst vor grossen Tieren/No Fear for Big Animals (1953) with Ingeborg Körner.


German collectors card by Lux.

Germany's Most Beloved Actor

Heinz Rühmann played such popular character roles as the title role in Mein Schulfreund/My School Chum (Robert Siodmak, 1960) and as father Brown in Das schwarze Schaf/The Black Sheep (Helmut Ashley, 1960).

He was an ensemble member at the famous Vienna Burgtheater from 1960 to 1962. In Hollywood, he played a supporting role in Ship of Fools (Stanley Kramer, 1965).

From 1968 on, Rühmann mainly worked for TV productions. Twelve times he was voted Germany's most beloved actor and he won a large number of awards.

He also published several books: Heinz Rühmann erzählt vom Geschenk der Weisen und andren Begebenheiten (1978), his memories Das war's (1982) and the photo biography Ein Leben in Bildern (1987).

He gave his farewell performance in In weiter Ferne, so nah!/Faraway, So Close! (Wim Wenders, 1993).

Heinz Rühmann died in 1994 in Aufkirchen, Germany. He was married three times, with Maria Herbot (1924-1938), Hertha Feiler (1939-1970; her death) and Hertha Droemer (1974-1994; his death).

He was the father of Peter Rühmann (mother: Hertha Feiler) and the grandfather of actress Melanie Rühmann.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2642, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden...?/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1966).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2662, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Progress. Publicity still for Hokuspokus oder: Wie lasse ich meinen Mann verschwinden...?/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1966).

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