Werner Pittschau

Handsome actor Werner Pittschau (1902-1928) was the promising jeune premier of the silent Austrian cinema. Sadly he was killed in a road accident at the age of 26.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1713/1, 1927-1928 (sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1929). Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2057/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3601/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fayer, Wien.

Acting Bug

Werner Pittschau was the son of Austrian stage actor Ernst Pittschau and stage actress Hilda Pittschau-Hofer née Schützenhofer. His older stepbrother Ernst Pittschau was a well-known film actor.

After his school education Werner went to a cadet school to become an officer. When the political situation in Austria changed he chose for a commercial education.

But the acting bug was inside him and he got his first engagement at the Landestheater in Prague as a jeune premier. There he was spotted by Erika Glässner and Hans Junkermann who brought him to the cinema.

He made his film début in the German film Der krasse Fuchs/The Cool Fox (Conrad Wiene, 1925) with Hans Brausewetter.

To his other early films belong Die Anne-Liese von Dessau (James Bauer, 1925) with Valy Arnheim, the war drama Volk in Not/Nation in Distress (Wolfgang Neff, 1925) with Claire Rommer, Die letzte Droschke von Berlin/The Last Taxi of Berlin (Carl Boese, 1926) and the German-British co-production Die versunkene Flotte/When Fleet Meets Fleet: A Romance of the Great Battle of Jutland (Graham Hewett, Manfred Noa, 1926), starring Hans Albers and Nils Asther.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1494/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1627/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3305/1, 1928-1929. Photo: H. Natze.

Breakthrough

Werner Pittschau had a breakthrough in the box-office hit Dirnentragödie/Tragedy of the Street (Bruno Rahn, 1927) in which Asta Nielsen starred as a prostitute.

He continued this success with a starring role in the comedy Ehekonflikte/Wedding Wars (Bruno Rahn, 1927), Die Geliebte des Gouverneurs/The Prince and the Dancer (Friedrich Fehér, 1927) opposite Magda Sonja, and another successful role in Sacco und Vanzetti (Alfréd Deésy - also credited as Alfred Kempf-Dezsi, 1927).

In 1928 the busy young actor appeared in a.o. Tragödie im Zirkus Royal/Tragedy at the Royal Circus (Alfred Lind, 1928) starring Bernhard Goetzke, Die weisse Sonate/The White Sonata (Louis Seemann, 1928) with Carla Bartheel, and Der erste Kuss/The First Kiss (Carl Lamac, 1928) with Anny Ondra.

He also appeared in the Hungarian production Mária növér/Sister Maria (Antal Forgács, 1929) and the Czech-German coproduction Známosti z ulice/ Strassenbekanntschaften/Pick-ups (Josef Medeotti-Bohác, Alwin Neuß, 1929).

After Erzherzog Johann/Archduke Johann (Max Neufeld), 1929 with Xenia Desni his promising career ended abruptly.

On 28 November 1928 Werner Pittschau was killed in a road accident in Spandau. During his much too short career he had appeared in more than 20 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1291/1, 1927-1928. Photo: National. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1494/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1768/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

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

A word from the editor

July 2016 was an excellent month for EFSP. For the first time since May 2010 when we started counting, there were more than 90,000 pageviews in one month (to be precise 98,998 views). So, what can I say?

Thanks!

Your views encourage me to continue this blog. But to be honest, EFSP is a product of many people, and I sincerely want to salute them - here and now.

First, a salute to the people who once created these film star postcards: the photographers, the publishers, and the stars. Happily for us, there were also the fans who collected and preserved all these - now - vintage cards.

Since we started this blog in 2008, many of you supported EFSP in one way or another. Some people have sent me postcards or other memorabilia to share here. Like Tatiana from the US who donated me postcards, photos and a clipping on the silent, Ukrainian-born film star Xenia Desni and her daughter Tamara Desni. Xenia and Tamara were Tatiana's aunt and niece.

A bittersweet memory is the mail by the partner of that glamorous British film star of the 1960s. He asked for a correction about her age: she was much younger than EFSP mentioned! All our sources were wrong, she had told it him herself! Of course, we respectfully skipped that post from EFSP.

I also salute our friends at Flickr, like Manuel, Veronique, Asa, Gill, Miss Mertens, Greta-g, etc., who were so generous to allow us to share their postcards in this blog.

Others of you shared information with me, commented and followed EFSP critically. We love that! A mystery to me is Erhanizzet. This anonymous film fan helped me to identify dozens of the film stills on our postcards, but never identified himself - or herself - to me and never answers my mails...

Thanks for being a source of information!

• Doctor Macro at Doctor Macro's High Quality Movie Scans - who inspired me to scan pictures for the web for all to share.
• La belle équipe at L'encinemathèque.
• Philippe Pelletier  at CinéArtistes.
• André Siscot and the other contributors at Les Gens du Cinema.
• Thomas Staedeli at Cyranos.
• Stephanie D'heil at Steffi-Line.
• Hal Erickson and all the other contributors at AllMovie.
• Brian J. Walker at Brian's Drive-in Theater.
• James Travers at Le Film Guide.
• David Absalom at British Pictures.
• Katherine Frances Nagels at Silents please!.
• Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.
• And everyone who I forget to mention here.

Thanks for being a friend!

• Didier Hanson, collector extraordinaire from Spain. Don't miss our post next Friday for some of his latest acquistions!
• Marlene Pilaete, 'La collectionneuse' from Belgium, editor of the web's most beautiful film postcard site.
• Egbert Barten of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. Check out our post about GDI's new acquisitions on 12 August.
• Bunched Undies, for the best film reviews and recipees on the web.
• Beth, keeper of the flame of Postcard Friendship Friday.
• Ivo Blom, my partner in life and in passion for film history.

Greetings from Amsterdam!

Paul van Yperen a.k.a. Bob

Chrissie White

Blue-eyed and light-haired beauty Chrissie White (1895-1989) was one of the most famous stars of the British silent cinema. In 1907 the 12-years old started at the Hepworth company and soon became a popular child star. In the 1920s, she and husband Henry Edwards were regarded as one of Britain's most newsworthy celebrity couples.


British postcard. Photo: Hepworth Pictures.


British postcard. Photo: Hepworth Pictures. Publicity still for Broken Threads (Henry Edwards, 1917).

Creating Havoc Everywhere

Chrissie White was born Ada Constance White in Chiswick, London, in 1895 – the year film was introduced by the Lumière brothers. As a child, she made her first stage appearance in Bluebell in Fairyland.

She started her film career when joining the Hepworth company in 1907, when she substituted for her sister, Gwen. Another sister, Rosina White also worked for Hepworth.

Ada was 12 at the time and under the name of ‘Chrissie’ she soon became one of the first stars of the British cinema. She often performed in shorts by director Lewin Fitzhamon, such as The Cabman's Good Fairy (Lewin Fitzhamon, 1909).

When White was teamed with Alma Taylor, they became a popular comic duo as the naughty schoolgirls Tilly (Taylor) and Sally (White), who create havoc everywhere.

The Tilly girls featured in a popular series of comedies in the years 1910 and 1911. Typical examples are Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor (Lewin Fitzhamon, 1910) and Tilly's Party (Lewin Fitzhamon, 1911). Although she was a star now, White always rode to the studios on a bicycle.


British postcard by Hepworth.


British postcard. Photo: Hepworth Pictures.


British postcard by Hepworth Pictures. Photo Lallie Charles.

Most Popular British Star of Her Time

Chrissie White moved slowly from comedy to drama and romance. By 1912 she had become Hepworth’s leading lady and the blue-eyed beauty was the most popular British star of her time. In the same year she married Claude Whitten, who also worked for Hepworth.

One of her earliest features was a crime film set in the horse racing milieu: Kissing Cup (1913, Jack Hulcup). This film still survives in the Desmet Collection at the Eye Film Institute in Amsterdam, as well as the Tilly comedy Tilly in a Boarding House (1911).

Other memorable titles were The Vicar of Wakefield (Frank Wilson, 1913) with Violet Hopson, and At the Foot of the Scaffold (1913, Warwick Buckland) opposite Alec Worcester.

Among Chrissie White’s other male film partners were Lionelle Howard (from 1914 on), Stewart Rome (between 1914-1917), a.o. in Coward! (1915, Frank Wilson) and Her Boy (Frank Wilson, 1915), and Henry Edwards (from 1918 on).

Edwards also directed most of their films together, such as Possession (Henry Edwards, 1919), The City of Beautiful Nonsense (Henry Edwards, 1919), The Kinsman (Henry Edwards, 1919), The Bargain (Henry Edwards, 1921) and Lily of the Alley (Henry Edwards, 1923).

All in all they did some 22 films together. They were also a couple in real life, as White married Edwards in 1922. Edwards and White became real celebrities in Britain, the equivalent of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

White's last silent film with Edwards was the romance The World of Wonderful Reality (Henry Edwards, 1924). When Hepworth collapsed in 1924, Chrissie White - who had worked only for Hepworth - retired from the screen, to the regret of her fans.

She returned briefly in the sound era to play in two more films with Edwards as her male partner: The Call of the Sea (Leslie Hiscott, 1930) and the comedy General John Regan (Henry Edwards, 1933), filmed in Northern Ireland. White definitively retired from the screen, and after the death of Edwards in 1952 she withdrew completely from publicity. She had worked in over 180 films, shorts and features.

At the age of 94, Chrissie White died of a heart attack in Liss, Hampshire, England, in 1989. She was buried at the Westwood Memorial Park. Actress Henryetta Edwards (1926) is her daughter. Clips of Chrissie White's films can be traced in the BBC / BFI documentary Silent Britain (2006).


British postcard by T.I.C.


British postcard. Photo: Stanborough.


With Henry Edwards. British postcard by TIC.

Sources: David Quinlan (IMDb), Hepworthfilm.org, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: The Swedish Silent Cinema

My partner, Ivo Blom, recently visited Sweden and he found in a Stockholm shop 70 rare vintage postcards of Swedish silent films. Ivo selected twelve dazzling postcards for us today. In beautiful sepia tones, these cards give an impression of how the Scandinavian directors Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller ruled the world cinema during the 1910s and 1920s. And then both were lured to Hollywood.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 876/3. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for the comedy Thomas Graals bästa film/Thomas Graal's Best Film (Mauritz Stiller, 1917), scripted by Gustav Molander. The story deals with a screenwriter (Victor Sjöström) who falls in love with his secretary Bessie (Karin Molander) and imagines himself rescuing her from poverty. Reality is quite different as Bessie is a modern woman. The film also mocks the bored aristocracy involved in the modernity of filmmaking. Caption: The author Thomas Graal at sea.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 843/9. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Tösen från Stormyrtorpet/The Girl from the Marsh Croft (Victor Sjöström, 1917), after the novel of Selma Lagerlöf. Story: Gudmund (Lars Hanson) is about to marry Hildur (Karin Molander). Suddenly, the girl Helga (Greta Almroth) claims that Gudmund is the father of her baby. The case is brought to court. Caption: Hildur dressed up as the bride.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 877/1. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for the comedy Alexander den Store/Alexander the Great (Mauritz Stiller, 1917). The story of the film deals with a provincial hotel cook, named Alexander the Great (Hauk Abel), in whose restaurant not only the dishes can be spicy. Caption: Alexander has rediscovered his beloved from his youth (Stina Stockenstam).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/6. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern. Publicity still for Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). A stranger (Victor Sjöström) comes to work at the farm of widow Halla (Edith Erastoff). Halla and the stranger fall in love, but when he is revealed as Eyvind, an escaped thief forced into crime by his family's starvation, they flee and become two of the many outlaws of Iceland's mountains. The Outlaw and His Wife is one of the classics of Swedish silent cinema, shot in the mountains in northern Sweden, and showing not only the hardship of nature but also the intolerance of humans. Caption: The Outlaw.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1117/7. Photo: Svensk Filmindustri. Publicity still for Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921). As he is the last one to die on New Year's Eve, the drunkard David Holm (Victor Sjöström) is forced to take over the phantom carriage for a full year, collecting the souls of the dead. Körkarlen is a classic from Swedish silent cinema.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 166. Photo: Skandia Film. Publicity still for Bomben/The Bomb (Rune Carlsten, 1920), starring Karin Molander. Caption: Elsa Vendel's first morning amidst her own possessions.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1093/9. Photo: Svenska Biografteatren. Publicity still for Karin Ingmarsdotter/God's Way/ Karin Daughter of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1920), starring Tora Teje; here with Bertil Malmstedt as her son.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1097/1. Photo: Svensk Filmindustri. Publicity still for Erotikon/Bounds That Chafe (Mauritz Stiller, 1920), starring Karin Molander; and not pictured here Anders de Wahl, Lars Hanson and Tora Teje.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 295. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm/Svensk Filmindustri. Publicity still for De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921), starring Jenny Hasselquist. This is a lost film, except for a few very short fragments.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 327. Photo: Skandia Film/Svensk Filminspelning. Publicity still for Det omringade huset/The Surrounded House (Victor Sjöström, 1922), starring Meggie Albanesi and Victor Sjöström.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 336. Photo: Svensk Filminspelning. Publicity still for Eld ombord/Fire on board (Victor Sjöström, 1923), starring Victor Sjöström and Jenny Hasselquist.


Finnish postcard by Kerttikeskus Kortcentralen, Helsinki, no. 1311. Photo: publicity still for the Norwegian silent film Laila (George Schnéevoigt 1929), starring Mona Mårtenson aka Mona Mårtensson.

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



This post was last updated on 16 July 2022.

Assia Noris

Fresh and charming Assia Noris (1912-1998) is best remembered as the star of several 1930s romantic comedies directed by Mario Camerini and co-starring Vittorio De Sica. Although Russian-born, she was nicknamed Italy's sweetheart.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli EC., Milano, 1938-XVI. Photo: Pesce.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 413-A. Photo: I.C.I. / Vaselli.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 207, 1941-1944. Photo: Difu.

Five Husbands

Assia Noris was born Anastasia Noris von Gerzfeld in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1912. Her father was a German official, her mother was from Ukraine.

After the Russian Revolution the family fled first to France, then to Italy in 1929. That year Assia also married count Gastone d’Assia, whose last name she would use as stage name, even if he was only the first of her five husbands.

In 1933 Assia Noris made her screen début in Tre uomini in frac/I Sing for You Alone, the Italian version of the French film Trois hommes en habit. Both versions were directed by Mario Bonnard and starred opera singer Tito Schipa.

In 1935-1936 she also played in both the French and the Italian version of Bonnard’s La marcia nuziale/La marche nuptiale (Mario Bonnard, 1936).

Noris’ fame, however, is linked to her performances in the comedies by Mario Camerini, with whom she had an affair from 1936 on, dropping her former lover Roberto Rossellini – whom she presumably married for a very short time. At that time Rossellini was a penniless playboy and working as an editor, Camerini was an acclaimed director.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 166. Photo: Vaselli.


Italian postcard by Ed. Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.


Italian postcard. Photo: SAPEC / Generalcine. Assia Noris in Voglio vivere con Letizia (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1938).

Angelic Looks

Assia Noris’ male co-partner in the Camerini comedies was heartthrob Vittorio De Sica. Often she played the honest lower or middle class girl, such as the circus girl Anna who has an affair with a millionaire who goes undercover as a bum in Darò un milione/I'll Give a Million (Mario Camerini, 1935)

Noris played the governess Lauretta who likes the newspaper vendor Gianni but dislikes the snob Max, not knowing they are one and the same man in Il signor Max/Mister Max (Mario Camerini, 1937). She is also the shopping girl in a department store who first dislikes, then falls in love with the new assistant and chauffeur, who becomes a local hero, in I Grandi magazzini/Department Store (Mario Camerini, 1939).

In all of these films De Sica pretends to be somebody else: a simple man while being millionnaire in Darò un milione, a millionaire while being a simple man in Il signor Max, while Assia Noris remains the honest, simple girl.

This pretense of a second character Noris played herself too in Batticuore/Heartbeat (Mario Camerini, 1939), in which she is a pickpocketing girl hired by a diplomat (John Lodge) but considered a baroness by others. She also played one and the same person but in three different stages of her life in Camerini’s Una romantica avventura/A Romantic Adventure (Mario Camerini, 1940) opposite Gino Cervi.

Guy Bellinger describes her star persona at IMDb: "Fresh and charming, she drew lots of fans into theaters. Not that the comedies she played in were masterpieces: they were in fact harmless and a bit artificial but constituted welcome escapism from the strange times the Italians were living. Not that Assia Noris was the greatest actress ever either: she never really changed face expressions, when she was supposed to cry she shed crocodile tears plus she could not go beyond the superficiality of the characters she was given to play. But how sizzling she was, how cute she was and what beautiful costumes and hats she wore!"

Noris demonstrated she could play the diva part as well in the comedy Dora Nelson (Mario Soldati, 1939), in which she really plays two characters opposite Carlo Ninchi: a bitchy Russian film star and as a simple girl replacing the impossible star, both at the Cinecittà studios as well as at home. Likeness causes problems but also offers attractive solutions.

During the war years Noris was a bit fed up with playing the ‘ingénue’, the fiancée; so she now also played dramatic roles as in Un colpo di pistola/A Pistol Shot (Renato Castellani, 1942) with Fosco Giachetti, and Una storia d’amore/Love Story (Mario Camerini, 1942) with Piero Lulli. With her romanticism and her angelic looks, she represented the Italian woman ‘par excellence’ for over a decade, despite her overacting, her foreign accent and her rather Northern European beauty.


Italian postcard by Mimosa.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit (Ballerini & Fratini Editori, Firenze), no. 2333. Photo: E.N.I.C.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit (Ballerini & Fratini Editori, Firenze), no. 4335. Photo: Lux Film / Foto Pesce.

Scandalous Bikini

Assia Noris was not a bit afraid to cause a scandal, being the first woman in Italy to wear a bikini in public, to great jealousy of rival actresses Doris Duranti and Clara Calamai.

One of her key moments in life was her encounter with Adolph Hitler, whom she described as a snowman with fake nose, eyes and moustache. While spitting her in the face, Hitler offered her to play at Ufa, which she gently declined, causing general embarrassment.

When war came on in 1940, Noris secured herself against her foreignness by marrying Mario Camerini, Italianizing her. The marriage ended in quarrels, though, in 1943.

Noris tried her luck in France with two films, Le voyageur de la Toussaint/The Traveller of All Saints' Day (Louis Daquin, 1943) with Jules Berry, and Le capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Abel Gance, 1943) featuring Fernand Gravey, but both were unsuccessful.

When the war was over, Noris’ career was over as well. People did not blame her for her career under Benito Mussolini; her anti-fascism was known, but her type was traded now for the more populist face of Anna Magnani and of course those of the non-professional actors and actresses of the Neorealist cinema.

Noris did two more films in 1945, and one in 1951, but none were successes. She tried her luck on stage but this wasn’t a success as well. In 1961 film director Carlo Lizzani gave her one last lead in his comedy La Celestina P... R... (Carlo Lizzani, 1965) with Venantino Venantini.

For years Noris lived in Egypt with her fifth husband, the Egyptian impresario Antoine 'Tony' Habib – he came after D’Assia, Rosselini, Camerini, and the British official Jacob Pelster.

In 1998 Assia Noris died in a hospital in San Remo, Italy, after a short illness.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 43. Photo: Vaselli / Juventus.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 111.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 222. Photo: Pesce / Lux Film.


Italian postcard by A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma (ASER), no. 237.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), CineArtistes (French), Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.

Hon dansade en sommar (1951)

Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (1951) is a Swedish film by director Arne Mattsson, based on the 1949 novel Sommardansen (The Summer Dance) by Per Olof Ekström. It was the first Swedish film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. The nude scenes in the film caused much controversy at the time and, together with Ingmar Bergman's Sommaren med Monika/Summer with Monika (1953), spread the image of Swedish 'free love' around the world. Leading actress Ulla Jacobsson became an international star.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 548. Photo: Nordisk Tonefilm / Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 773. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German postcard by Kolibril-Verlag, no. 772. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).

She danced for a summer

Hon dansade en sommar (literally: She danced for a summer) tells the story about the 19-years old Göran (Folke Sundquist) who after graduating from high school spends a summer on his uncle Anders's farm. It's summer and there is a lot of work to do at the farm, but the city student isn't accustomed to that.

Göran falls in love with 17 year old Kerstin (Ulla Jacobsson), and suddenly he is very engaged in country life. The village youth are in a bitter conflict with the extremely strict vicar (John Elfström), who condemns all their activities as immoral. When the vicar forbids the youth to use the school for their meetings anymore, Anders (Edvin Adolphson) gives them an old barn, which they start renovating.

Kerstin has a strict mother, who in vain forbids her to take part in the youth activities. Kerstin goes there with Göran. She is a bit shy, but the romance between them develops step by step, until it is fulfilled on a summer night, when they swim naked in a lake.

They experience an intense summer together, and Göran dreads the idea of returning to university in the autumn. But a motorcycle accident puts an end to it all, with Kerstin dying in Göran's arms. Göran is accused by the vicar for being a seducer that had led Kerstin astray.

Hon dansade en sommar caused much international controversy, because of the nude swimming sequence and the love scene which included a close-up of Ulla Jacobsson's breasts, but also because of its very anti-clerical message. So, in spite of its awards, the film was banned in several countries, among them Spain, and it wasn't released in the United States until 1955.

Reviewer Max at IMDb: "This charming film should be restored and reissued. Its story line is simple, perhaps a bit trite. However, the central character Kerstin presents us with a rare glimpse of the blossoming of youth, emerging from innocence to passion to tragedy in a short season. No spectacular acting here, but one senses a freshness and spontaneity rarely grasped in low budget productions. No specific message here, other than raw warmth followed by pain and despair."


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin-Film. Publicity still for Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (Arne Mattsson, 1951).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.