12 July 2014

Louise Carletti

Beautiful, photogenic actress Louis Carletti (1922-2002) was the young and sweet star of the French cinema of the late 1930s and 1940s.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 92. Photo: Discina.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 89. Photo: S.P.C.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Collection Chantal, no. 838. Photo: G. Aldo / Discina, Paris.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 18.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 124. Photo: Roger-Carlet.

A family of trapeze artists


Louise Carletti was born Luisa Armida Paola Carboni in a family of trapeze artists in Marseille, France, in 1922.

She had her first performance as an acrobat at the age of seven at the music hall of Marseille.

Her sister Victoria would later become known as the actress Carlettina.

Louise was discovered by the famous film director Jacques Feyder when she did a dance act with Victoria. At 15, Louise made her first film appearance in the circus film Les Gens du voyage/People Who Travel (Jacques Feyder, 1938), starring Françoise Rosay.

Her breakthrough came two years later with the successful films L' Enfer des anges/Angels of the Underground (Christian-Jaque, 1940) with Mouloudji, and Nous, les gosses/Portrait of Innocence (Louis Daquin, 1941) with Gilbert Gil.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 1. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 93. Photo: Le Studio.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 307. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions Continental, no. 107/A. Photo: Continental Films.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Viny, no. 43. Photo: Filmexport.

Raoul André


In the next years, Louise Carletti became a busy film star, and she proved to be equally good in comic as in dramatic parts. In 1942, when she was 20, she played opposite the legendary actor Henri Garat in Annette et la dame blonde/Annette and the Blonde Woman (Jean Dréville, 1942).

Other better known productions of those years are Macao, l'enfer du jeu/Gambling Hell (Jean Delannoy, 1942) with the legendary silent film star Sessue Hayakawa, Patricia (Paul Mesnier, 1942), Des jeunes filles dans la nuit/Young Girls at Night (René Le Hénaff, 1943), L'ennemi sans visage/The Enemy Without a Face (Robert-Paul Dagan, 1946), and Fausse identité/False Identity (André Chotin, 1947) with Raymond Bussières.

In 1946, she appeared in Le Village de la colère/The Village of Wrath, her first film directed by Raoul André. In 1955 they married, and their daughter, Ariane Carletti, would also become an actress.

In the 1950s Louise mainly worked with her husband in films like Une fille à croquer/Good Enough to Eat (Raoul André, 1951) opposite Gaby Morlay, Les pépées au service secret/The Pépées in Secret Service (Raoul André, 1956), and La planque/The Hideout (Raoul André, 1961) with Mouloudji.

Her last film was the adventure Mission spéciale à Caracas/Mission to Caracas (Raoul André, 1965). That same year she retired to occupy herself with her family. Louise Carletti died in 2002 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, at age 80.

Louise Carletti
French postcard, no. 47. Photo: C.P.L.E.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 26. Photo: Pathé.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 53. Photo: Le Studio.

Louise Carletti
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 124. Photo: Roger Carlet.

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

This post was last updated on 2 September 2023.

9 comments:

Linda said...

What expressive eyebrows! I enjoy seeing these film clips, happy PFF.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

You'd think from the name that she'd be Italian. She's not one that I knew of before today.

MuseSwings said...

I thought that was "Lois Lane" from the 1950's Superman TV show for a second. Interesting Bio!

Lyneen said...

She was a beauty!!!! I watched the clips. Couldn't understand a word... but she is sure expressive. Thanks for sharing.

viridian said...

Happy PFF!

Dorincard said...

You put a lot of "labor of love" and research in each blogpost...Unique! :)
The ultimate maximum card with an actress/actor would be an autographed one (not with auto-pen/rubberstamp, etc.). Really signed. :)

Mary said...

Her eyelashes are incredible. I couldn't make mine look like that with any amount of treatment and/or money!

LiT Web Studio said...

once again, you've introduced me to a star from a bygone era that i've never even heard of! as sheila mentioned, that's a very italian birth name - Luisa Armida Paola Carboni - her parents must surely have been italian?! happy PFF!

Carole said...

What beautiful eyes. Reminds me of my mothers eyes.

You had asked me what book the page is from that I used on my postcard...It's from the childrens book, The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs.