09 October 2015

Grit Haid

Today at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, I am gonna see another film starring Forzuto Luciano Albertini, the German adventure film Rinaldo Rinaldini (1927). The leading lady is Austrian film actress Grit Haid (1900-1938), who was active in the Austrian and German cinema from the mid-1910s to the 1930s.

Grit Haid
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3090/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Kiesel, Berlin.

Wiener mädel


Grit Haid was born Margarete Haid in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1900. She was the sister of film star Liane Haid. Grit took ballet classes and became a solo dancer at the Viennese Volksoper.

Already at a young age, she started her film career. Her first film was Fürst Seppl/Prince Seppl (Carl Froelich, 1915). Soon she was typecasted as the typical merry Wiener Mädel. After the First World War, she worked a.o. for the Viennese Filmag. Grit Haid mainly played in comedies, sometimes also in dramas, and from 1926 on she also appeared in German films.

It was then that her career really set off, with such films as Der Soldat der Marie/Marie's Soldier (Erich Schönfelder, 1926) starring Xenia Desni, Menschen untereinander/People Among Another (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1926) starring Alfred Abel, and Der Mann ohne Kopf/The Man Without A Head (Nunzio Malasomma, 1927) starring Carlo Aldini.

One of her most enjoyable films was the romantic adventure film Rinaldo Rinaldini (Max Obal, Rudolf Dworsky, 1927), featuring Italian 'Forzuto' (strong man) Luciano Albertini.

Grit Haid also appeared in Der alte Fritz/The Old Fritz (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1927) starring Otto Gebühr, Saxophon-Susi (Carl Lamac, 1928) starring Anny Ondra, Sein bester Freund/His Best Friend (Harry Piel, 1929) and Andreas Hofer (Hans Prechtl, 1929), starring Fritz Greiner.

Grit Haid
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1497/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Grit Haid
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1497/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Plane crash


Grit Haid played in two of the adventure films that serial film hero Eddie Polo made in Germany in the late 1920s: Der gefesselte Polo/The Chained Polo (Léo Lasko, 1928) and Eddie Polo im Wespennest/Eddie Polo In The Wasps' Nest (Léo Lasko, 1930).

In the meantime, Haid had also remained engaged at Berlin and Viennese theatres and during the 1926-1927 season she performed under Max Reinhardt’s direction as Fräulein Roboz in Ferenc Molnár’s one-act play 'Das Veilchen' (The Violet), as well as Nannie in W. Somerset Maugham’s 'Viktoria'.

In the 1930s Grit Haid mostly played small parts, but she had a leading part in the sound remake of her first film Fürst Seppl/Prince Seppl (Franz Osten, 1932). Gritt Haid was married to scriptwriter Jozef (later: Joseph) Than, who had written Fürst Seppl/Prince Seppl.

Her final film was the Austrian production ... Nur ein Komödiant/ ... Just a Comedian (Erich Engel, 1935) starring Rudolf Forster. Director Erich Engel, temporarily in Vienna as a political emigrant from Germany, made with this film a statement against fascism and authoritarian government.

In 1938, on Haid's return journey to her husband in Paris, the aeroplane (Prague-Paris flight) crashed near Offenburg in the Schwarzwald (the Black Forrest). Haid was among the 17 fatalities. During her career, Grit Haid played in some 50 films.

Grit Haid
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4655/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Badekow, Berlin.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the blog The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.



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

This post was last updated on 27 July 2024.

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