Martine Carol

One of the French cinema's most beautiful women was Martine Carol (1920-1967). During the early 1950s, the French sex symbol was a top box office draw as an elegant blonde seductress in many films and was often compared to Marilyn Monroe. Her private life was filled with turmoil including a suicide attempt, drug abuse, a kidnapping, and her mysterious death at only 46.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 132. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 162. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 222. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Edition du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 320. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Edition du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 321. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 357. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 432. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Anti-semitic propaganda

Martine Carol was born in 1920 as Marie Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer in Saint-Mandé, near Paris. 'Maryse' was the daughter of the freight forwarder Marcel Mourer and his wife (maiden name: Arley). She attended the Dominican School of Neuilly. Later Maryse studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and then earned a living as a model.

A chance meeting with comedian André Luguet steered her toward a career in the theatre. Carol joined the theatre company led by Gaston Baty, where she received acting lessons from Robert Manuel and later from René Clair and Jean Wall. She adopted the stage name Maryse Arley (after her mother's name) and made her 1940 stage debut with 'Phèdre' by Jean Racine. She appeared at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris in plays such as 'La Route du tabac' (Tobacco Road) after Erskine Caldwell alongside Marcel Mouloudji, Alfred de Musset's 'Les Caprices de Marianne' and William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'. She also attended the acting classes of René Simon.

She made her first film appearances during the Occupation. She caught the eye of film director Henri-Georges Clouzot who hired her for his film Le Chat/The Cat, based on the novel by Colette, but the project was scrapped. In 1941, she appeared in a bit role alongside Pierre Fresnay and Jean Tissier in Le Dernier des six/The Last One of the Six (Georges Lacombe, 1941), which was based on a screenplay by Clouzot.

Like many French actors, she played in films financed by the German company Continental, directed by Alfred Greven. Carol appeared for Continental in Les Inconnus dans la maison/Strangers in the House (Henri Decoin, 1942), with Raimu, and in an openly anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda film, the short Les Corrupteurs/The (Pierre Ramelot, 1942).

She first attracted attention in La ferme aux loups/Wolf Farm (Richard Pottier, 1943), which takes advantage of her photogenic beauty and ease in front of the camera despite a limited acting ability. Her co-actor François Périer invented her stage name Martine Carol as a tribute to Carole Lombard.

Carol was kidnapped by gangster Pierre Loutrel aka ‘Pierrot le Fou' (Crazy Pete), who tried to rape her in the Bois de Boulogne and afterwards sent her flowers and steaks (!) to apologise. After the liberation, she took a blonde haircut so that she looked even more like her idol Lana Turner. She was held captive, almost literally, by a new lover, John Ringling North of the Barnum Circus, but she escaped his golden cage.

In 1947 a torrid affair with handsome actor Georges Marchal, who was married to actress Dany Robin at the time, ended disastrously and she attempted suicide by taking an alcohol/drug overdose and throwing herself off a bridge into the Seine River. She was saved by a taxi driver who accompanied her there. Ironically, the unhappy details surrounding her suicide attempt renewed the fascination audiences had with Martine up until that time.

Throughout the 1940s, Martine Carol was a pin-up goddess and supporting actress in films like the comedy Voyage surprise/The Bride's Surprise (Pierre Prévert, 1947) and Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (André Cayatte, 1949). She also appeared on the stage of the Theatre of the Renaissance. In 1949, she married Steve Crane, Lana Turner's former husband and nicknamed "Mister Gigolo". She was obsessed with her appearance: she even had a new nose fitted by the legendary Dr. Claoué ("Le nez Claoué, le nez chic de la vraie Parisienne") to better resemble Turner. She lost a child in a water-skiing accident when she wanted to see the wedding of Rita Hayworth and Aga Kahn "from afar", as she was not invited.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 364. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 456. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 561. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F192-657, posted in 1958.


Vintage card. Photo: still for Lucrèce Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (Christian-Jaque, 1953).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild. Berlin, no. A 1146. Photo: Allianz-Film. Publicity still for Madame du Barry/Madame Dubarry (Christian Jacque, 1954).


West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. V 357. Photo: Gamma / Union / Rotzinger. Martine Carol in Lola Montès/Lola Montez (Max Ophüls, 1955).

Taunting, Kittenish Sexuality

In 1950 Martine Carol scored her first huge film success with the historical epic Caroline Cherie/Dear Caroline (Richard Pottier, 1950) - no doubt prompted by her nude scene, six years before Brigitte Bardot. The film was adapted from the popular novels of Cécil Saint-Laurent. Carol played a young aristocrat during the French Revolution who loves one man, but who, to save her life, often has to sacrifice her virtue and lend her body, which, however, does not always displease her. Martine Carol was off and running at the box office.

Caroline Cherie/Dear Caroline was a great public success: attracting 3.6 million spectators, it ranked ninth at the French box office for the year 1951. France had a new sex symbol. Two years later, filmmaker Jean Devaivre made a sequel, Un caprice de Caroline Chérie/Caroline Cherie (1952), in which Carol again displayed her taunting, kittenish sexuality. The sequel was also a great success with 2.8 million viewers.

The next important step in Carol's career was her meeting in 1952 with the much older filmmaker Christian-Jaque, who called on her for Adorables créatures/Adorable Creatures (Christian-Jaque, 1952), a comedy in which Daniel Gélin recalls all his conquests. It was love at first sight between Christian-Jaque and Carol. And the film was well received.

The couple continued spectacularly with costumed teasers such as Lucrèce Borgia/Sins of the Borgias (1953), Madame du Barry (1954), and the Emile Zola adaptation Nana (1954), all directed by Christian-Jacque who became her second husband in 1954. These starring roles made her France's equivalent of Marilyn Monroe. Her film romps were also typically done tastefully with an erotic twinge of innocence and gentle sexuality plus an occasional bubble bath thrown in as male bait.

Martine later divorced the director due to professional conflicts and long separations. She also starred in Belles de Nuit/ Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952) opposite Gérard Philipe, and in the last comedy directed by Preston Sturges, Les Carnets du Major Thompson/The Diary of Major Thompson (1955), based on the best-seller by Pierre Daninos.

One of her last major roles was as the title character in Lola Montés/Lola Montez (Max Ophüls, 1955), the tragic and true story of the great adventurer, circus attraction, and lover of various important men. Finally, she was taken seriously by the film critics. The story of the end of life of the fallen and impoverished courtesan Lola Montès, however, did not appeal to the public. Later, the work nevertheless became a classic of French cinema.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 365. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 564. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 690. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (Dutch licency holder for Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 3611. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H. Minden/Westf., no. 1719. Photo: Gamma / Union / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955) with Ivan Desny.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden-Westf., no. 1723. Photo: Gamma / Union / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955).


West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2160. Photo: Vogelmann / Gamma / Union. Martine Carol in Lola Montez (Max Ophüls, 1955).

Severe Decline

By the mid-1950s, Brigitte Bardot had replaced Martine Carol as the national Sex Siren, and the voluptuous blonde's career went into a severe decline. In the crime comedy Nathalie (Christian-Jaque, 1957), she played a coquettish, clever haute couture mannequin, a role that was made for her. This last film with Christian-Jaque still made the film box-office ring, although the film had to do with much less budget than usual. That limited budget was the direct consequence of Carol's decreased prestige due to the Lola Montès fiasco.

In 1960, she successfully played Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife, in the historical fresco Austerlitz/The Battle of Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960). In the next two years, she worked several more times with classically trained filmmakers such as Georges Lautner and Gilles Grangier. Grangier engaged her for his police comedy Le cave se rebiffe/The Counterfeiters (Gilles Grangier, 1961) at the intercession of Jean Gabin, who had fond memories of his collaboration with Carol in Miroir/Mirror (Raymond Lamy, 1947). Le cave se rebiffe was her last commercial success.

Her last significant role was as Contessa Vitelleschi who supports a young revolutionary on the run from government troops in Roberto Rossellini's historical drama Vanina Vanini/The Betrayer (1961) with Laurent Terzieff. This mature role did not revive the audience's interest. Depressed, she turned alarmingly reclusive while a third marriage to French doctor Andre Rouveix also soured by 1962. She sought refuge in alcohol and narcotics and followed impossible slimming regimes. For five years she stayed away from the big screen.

She returned in the little-seen Italian production Lasciapassare per l'inferno/Passport to hell (George Fuller, 1966) opposite Guy Madison and Klaus Kinski. Her last film was Hell Is Empty (John Ainsworth, Bernard Knowles, 1967). Production was briefly halted due to her illness. This is why the film had two directors. Although filmed in 1963 it was not released until 1967. By the time of the release of the film, two of the leading ladies, Patricia Viterbo and Martine, were already dead.

Martine Carol’s last marriage to fourth husband Mike Eland, an English businessman, had seemed hopeful. Eland was a friend of her first husband, Steve Crane, and had been in love with her for a long time. Eland tried to put her luxury life and career back on track but in 1967, he found her dead in the bathroom of her room in the Hotel de Paris in Monaco.

Martine Carol died of a heart attack. She was only 46. Newspapers hinted at a possible drug overdose but nothing was ever proven. She was initially buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery of Paris. But her grave was violated - some media reported that she had been interred with her jewels. Martine Carol was then buried in the Grand Jas Cemetery of Cannes.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-2. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Gérard Décaux / Ufa.


West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3478. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Ufa.


Austrian postcard by Kellner Fotokarten, Wien, no. 1030. Photo: Titanus / Union. Martine Carol in Difendo il mio amore/Defend My Love (Giulio Macchi, 1957).


West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4064. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for The Stowaway (Ralph Habib, Lee Robinson, 1958).


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 314.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 5. Photo: Collignon. Publicity still for Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 58. Retail price: 50 Pfg. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Ufa.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 267. Photo: Cei Incom.


German postcard by ISV, no. D 9. Photo: Farabola.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Ronny de Schepper (Writer's Blog - Dutch), Wikipedia (English, French, and Dutch), and IMDb.