Cathia Caro

Former French actress Cathia Caro (1943) was a young, delicate beauty. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, she starred in French and especially Italian films, opposite such stars as Totò, Peppino De Filippo and Aldo Fabrizi.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 735. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.

Isabelle is afraid of men

Cathia Caro was born in Rouen, France, in 1943. Caro first appeared on the big screen in the title role of the film Isabelle a peur des hommes/Isabelle Is Afraid of Men (Jean Gourguet, 1957). At the time she was only 14 years old.

She then played the daughter of Arletty and the girlfriend of Jean-Paul Belmondo in the comedy Un drôle de dimanche/What a Sunday (Marc Allégret, 1958).

Mario Gauci at IMDb: “A pleasant enough effort, then, if strictly minor (and, ultimately, pretty forgettable) fare.”

In the following years, she was particularly active in Italy in such well-known films as the melodrama Estate violent/Violent Summer (Valerio Zurlini, 1959) with Eleonora Rossi Drago.

She also played in such comedies as Arrangiatevi!/You're on Your Own (Mauro Bolognini, 1959) with Peppino De Filippo and the entertaining satire Tartassati/The Over-taxed (Steno, 1959) with Totò and Aldo Fabrizi.


French postcard by Editions P.I, Paris, no. 938, offered by "Les Carbones Korès Carboplane". Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions P.I, Paris, no. 916, offered by "Les Carbones Korès Çarboplane". Photo: Bernard & Vauclair.

Static and hokey

In 1959 Cathia Caro made headlines when she attempted suicide. She had a troubled relationship with the boxer Tiberio Mitri.

Caro played with Maurizio Arena in Simpatico mascalzone/Likeable Rascal (Mario Amendola, 1959), and Il principe fusto/The Stem Prince (1960), directed by Arena himself.

At the beginning of the 1960s, her career was boosted with the Peplum I giganti della Tessaglia/The Giants of Thessaly (Riccardo Freda, 1960). Mario Gauci at IMDb: “Riccardo Freda's involvement here ensures that this is one of the better Peplums, even if the result is rather static and hokey overall.”

That year she also co-starred with Peppino De Filippo and Ugo Tognazzi in Genitori in blue-jeans/Parents in blue jeans (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1960).

The following year, she made her final film, the mediocre Peplum Il trionfo di Maciste/Triumph of Maciste (Tanio Boccia, 1961) with bodybuilder Kirk Morris. She was only 18 when she retired from the film industry.


Italian postcard for Piaggio by Ed. Pontedera. Maurizio Arena and Cathia Caro on a scooter, c. 1960.

Tomorrow, twelve more postcards with stars on a Vespa in EFSP's Dazzling Dozen.

Sources: Geoffroy Caillet (Les Gens du Cinéma – French), Mario Gauci (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia (Italian and French) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 3 September 2023.