Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017)

On 28 March 2017, German actress Christine Kaufmann passed away. At only seven, she made her film debut in an adaptation of Im weißen Rößl/The White Horse Inn (1952). As an adult, Kaufmann moved to Hollywood and married Tony Curtis. Later she appeared in films by Werner Schroeter and Rainer Werner Fassbinder and became 'Germany's most beautiful grandmother'. Christine Kaufmann was 72.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/60.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-321. Photo: Klaus Collignon / Ufa.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 157.


German autograph card by Home Shopping Europe.

Lolita

Christine Maria Kaufmann was born in Lengdorf, Styria in what is now Austria, in 1945. Her father was a German Luftwaffe officer and her mother was a French doctor who gave up her practice to help further Christine's career. She grew up in München (Munich) and trained as a ballerina at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and later at the Staatsopernballett (Munich Opera). She started her film career at the age of seven with a small role in the musical Im weißen Rößl/White Horse Inn (Willi Forst, 1952).

The film which brought her fame was Rosen-Resli/Rose-Girl Resli (Harald Reinl, 1954) when she was only nine. The film was a gigantic success in post-war Germany and she moved millions of Germans to tears Soon she appeared in such films as Der schweigende Engel/The Silent Angel (Harald Reinl, 1954), Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh'n/When the Alpine Roses Bloom (Hans Deppe, Richard Häussler, 1955) with Hertha Feiler, and Ein Herz schlägt für Erika/A Heart Beats for Erika (Harald Reinl, 1956) with Grethe Weiser.

She gained international recognition when she played alongside Carla Gravina in Primo Amore/First Love (Mario Camerini, 1958), and with Steve Reeves in the Peplum Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard, Sergio Leone, 1959).

Christine Kaufmann co-starred with Kirk Douglas in Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961). She won the Golden Globe that year as the Most Promising Newcomer for her role. The press of the period was less concerned with Kaufmann's histrionic skills than with the revealing bikini which she wore in her early scenes.

That year she also appeared opposite Gert Fröbe in the interesting thriller Via Mala (Paul May, 1961), and with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Un nommé La Rocca/A Man Names Rocca (Jean Becker, 1961). The following year she appeared in the uneven escape film Escape from East Berlin (Robert Siodmak, 1962) opposite Don Murray, but she turned down the title role of Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) which went to Sue Lyon.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Wego / NF/ Michaelis. Publicity still for Ein Herz schlägt für Erika/A Heart beats for Erika (Harald Reinl, 1956).


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen. Retail price: 10 Pfg. Photo: Lantin / Panorama Film.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2986. Photo: Erwin Schneider.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1436.


German postcard, no. 10. Photo: Melodie.

Beauty

Christine Kaufmann was 17 when she met Tony Curtis on the set of the big-budget epic Taras Bulba (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) in Argentina. Curtis divorced his wife Janet Leigh and married Kaufmann in 1963. They appeared together in the frothy Universal comedy Wild and Wonderful (Michael Anderson, 1964). She briefly retired from films to give birth to two daughters, Alexandra (1964) and Allegra (1966). The pair divorced in 1968.

Kaufmann resumed her career in Germany, which she had interrupted during her marriage. The TV mini-series Wie ein Blitz/Like A Flash (Rolf von Sydow, 1960) became a huge success. On TV she also appeared in Krimis like Der Kommissar (1972) and Derrick (1977).

For the cinema, she often worked with director Werner Schroeter and his star Magdalena Montezuma in such films as Der Tod der Maria Malibran/The Death of Maria Malibran (1971), Willow Springs (1973), Goldflocken/Gold Flakes (1976) and Tag der Idioten/Day of the Idiots (1981) with Carole Bouquet. She also acted in several films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder like the TV film Welt am Draht/World on Wire (1973), Lili Marleen (1981) and Lola (1981).

Other international films were the Giallo Enigma rosso/Virgin Killer (Alberto Negrin, 1978) with Fabio Testi, the cult favourite Bagdad Café/Out of Rosenheim (Percy Adlon, 1987), and the comedy Haider lebt - 1. April 2021/Haider Lives - 1 April 2021 (Peter Kern, 2002). In 1995, after posing nude for Playboy Magazine at the age of 54, she was nicknamed 'Germany's most beautiful grandmother'. In later years, Christine Kaufmann regularly appeared in TV series and also had her own line of cosmetics. She wrote several books about beauty and health, as well as two autobiographies.

Christine Kaufmann died on 28 March 2017 in Munich, Germany from leukaemia. She was 72. After her marriage to Tony Curtis, Kaufmann was married to Kaufmann married the television director Achim Lenz (1974-76), musician and actor Reno Eckstein (1979-1982) and illustrator Klaus Zey (1997-2011).


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 302. Photo: Klaus Collignon / Ufa.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/61.


Cover page of an Austrian film programme by Neues Film-Programm, no. 1788. Steve Reeves and Christine Kaufmann in Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard, 1959).


German postcard by Starpostkarten-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 1013. Photo: Lothar Winkler.


German postcard by Kolibri Fotokarte, Minden/Westf., no. 2396. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Monsieur Cognac/Wild and Wonderful (Michael Anderson, 1964).


Scene of Taras Bulba (1962). Source: GSMovieMoments (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), IMDb and Wikipedia.

This post was last updated on 7 December 2024.

Ada Reeve

British stage and film actress Ada Reeve (1874-1966) was much loved on three continents. She was one of the most popular British singing comediennes of her time, and considered to be a headliner in variety and vaudeville. She was endowed with a softness of voice and delicacy of performance that quite set her apart from virtually all of her more raucous contemporaries in the music halls and popularised many memorable songs.


British postcard by the Philco Publishing Co., London, no. 3050 A. Photo: Bassano.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4167. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield.

The Family Meal Ticket

Ada Reeve was born as Adelaide Mary Isaacs in London, England, in 1874. She was the first of many children of minor actor Charles Reeves and dancer Harriet Saunders.

‘Little Ada Reeves’ made her first stage appearance at just four years old in the pantomime Red Riding Hood at the Pavilion Theatre in London in 1878. A series of pantomime and dramatic roles followed. Her talent, even at so early an age was obvious and Ada soon became the family meal ticket.

As a teenager, it became apparent that musical comedy was Ada's particular talent and she began working as a music hall performer under the name Ada Reeve. She soon became firmly established as one of the principal light comedy artistes and sang many songs which attained great popularity.

Her She Was a Clergyman’s Daughter was a seemingly innocent, but actually risqué music hall song about a clergyman's daughter who was not as naive or charitable as she would have you imagine.

Reeve performed the song in a demure costume of a flounced dress and bonnet, letting the audience in on the racy innuendos of the song through knowing winks and gestures.


British postcard in the Smart Novels Series by Dover Street Studios.


British postcard. Sent by mail in 1905.

Gaiety Girl

In 1894, Ada Reeve married actor Bert Gilbert and returned to mainstream theatre, first touring as Haidee in Don Juan.

Later that year she became one of George Edwardes famous Gaiety girls and made her West End Debut as Bessie Brent in The Shop Girl. She neglected to tell Edwardes that she was pregnant when offered the part, and had to leave midway through the run of 546 performances as her condition became more delicate.

She returned in All Abroad at the Criterion Theatre (1895), and as the title character in the hit The Girl from Paris (1896) at the Duke of York's Theatre.

She and her husband then toured Australia. However, the marriage with Gilbert had turned sour, with Reeve claiming extreme cruelty and petitioning for divorce while still in Australia. On the return sea journey to England, Reeve was forced to appeal to the captain of the ship for protection from him.

Once in England, the couple separated, and the divorce was finalised in 1900. Ada Reeve settled in London with her two daughters, Bessie Adelaide Hazlewood (1895) and Lillian Mary "Goody" Hazlewood (1897).


British postcard by Davidson Bros. in the Glossyphoto Series, no. 1285.


British postcard in The Star Series by G.D.&D., London.

Variety and Vaudeville

In 1898, Reeve played the role of Madame Celeste in Milord, Sir Smith, followed by the role of Cleopatra in The Great Caesar in 1899.

Later that year, she created the role of Lady Holyrood in the hit musical comedy Florodora at the Lyric Theatre. In 1900-1901, she again toured Australia, in Florodora.

Reeve joined the cast of the hit musical San Toy in 1901, and later took over the title role from Marie Tempest.

Reeve remarried in 1902 to manager and actor Wilfred Cotton. Under his management, she played Miss Ventnor in The Medal and the Maid (1903) and the title role in Winnie Brooke, Widow (1904). In 1906 and 1909, she toured South Africa with her husband, becoming very popular.

Over the following years, Reeve played in variety shows in England and enjoyed extensive foreign tours, including South Africa and the US in 1911, South Africa in 1913, Australia in 1914, Australia and South Africa in 1918, South Africa in 1920, Australia from 1922 to 1924, and in 1926 and 1929, the last time playing in vaudeville.


British postcard in the Valentine Series. Photo: Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin). Possibly this was a publicity still for the stage musical San Toy. Reeve joined the cast of this hit musical in 1901, playing Dudley and later taking over the title role from Marie Tempest.


British postcard in the Milton Photolette Series, no. 42 by Woolstone Bros., London. Sent by mail in 1908.

Take It For A Fact

Ada Reeve was absent from England from 1929 to 1935. Both of her daughters, Bessie and Goody, had in the meantime settled in Australia, where both married and had children. Goody became a well known radio personality, while Bessie died of an illness in 1954.

Upon Ada's return to England, she appeared in cabarets, revues and variety. Her next dramatic role was in 1940 in the musical Black Velvet.

During the 1940s and 1950s she would appear between stage performances in nine films. The first was the fantasy They Came to a City (Basil Dearden, 1945) starring Googie Withers. In this film she repeated her stage performance as charwoman Mrs. Batley in J.B. Priestley's play They Came To A City.

However, some sources mention that her first film appearance had been some 25 years earlier, in the silent film Comradeship (Maurice Elvey, 1919), a war drama starring Lily Elsie. Stage Beauty and Wikipedia suggest she played the role of Betty
Mortimore. However, Marlene Pilaete informed me that according to the book British film catalogue and the websites British Film Institute and IMDb, the role of Betty Mortimore was played by Lily Elsie. And there is no mention of Ada Reeve in the cast in those sources.

Her (other) film roles included supporting parts in the romantic comedy Dear Mr. Prohack (Thornton Freeland, 1949) with Cecil Parker, the Film Noir Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950) starring Richard Widmark, and I Believe in You (Basil Dearden, Michael Relph, 1952) with Celia Johnson.

At the age of 80, she retired from the stage but made two more films, the last of which was at the age of 83, in the comedy A Passionate Stranger (Muriel Box, 1957) with Ralph Richardson. She also appeared on TV in episodes of Lilli Palmer Theatre (1956) and Nicholas Nickleby (1957).

Ada Reeve died in London, in 1966, at the age of 92. She could look back on a career that had spanned almost eighty years from her first childhood performance on stage to her last veteran appearance on film. Her autobiography was published as Take It For A Fact.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 7428 D. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Publicity still for the stage play Butterflies with Iris Hoey, Stella St. Audrie, C. Hayden Coffin, John Bardsley, Ada Reeve and Louis Bradfield. Butterflies is a musical play in three acts by William J. Locke, lyrics by T.H. Read and music by J.A. Robertson. Produced at the Apollo Theatre, London in 1908.


British postcard, 1954. Caption: Me on my 80th Birthday. With best wishes, Ada Reeve.

Sources: Don Gillan (Stage Beauty), Martina Lipton (It’s Behind You), British Film Institute, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Mathias Wieman

German actor Mathias Wieman (1902-1969) starred in more than 50 films was and made Staatsschauspieler, the highest honour attainable by an actor in Germany. After the war he became a popular supporting actor in films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 89/3, 1925-1935. Photo: Terra Film. Publicity still for Königin Luise/Queen Louise (Karl Grune, 1927) with Mady Christians.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 219. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.

Leni Riefenstahl

Mathias Wieman was born Carl Heinrich Franz Mathias Wieman in Osnabrück in 1902. He was the only son of Carl Philipp Anton Wieman and his wife Louise.

Raised in Osnabrück, Wiesbaden and Berlin, where he studied four terms of philosophy, history of art and languages, Wieman wanted to become an airplane designer and flier.

He started his acting career at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt. His debut role was Moritz Stiefel in Frank Wedekind’s Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening).

In the early 1920s, he was a member of the Holtorf-Truppe, a stock theatre group that included future director Veit Harlan. His fellow stage actors included his future wife, Erika Meingast, Marlene Dietrich, and Max Schreck (the vampire in Nosferatu).

Later he began working in silent films, including Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin/Mata Hari: the Red Dancer (Friedrich Feher, 1927), Feme (Richard Oswald, 1927), Königin Luise/Queen Louise (Karl Grune, 1927) opposite Mady Christians, and Das Land ohne Frauen/Bride Number 68 (Carmine Gallone, 1929) starring Conrad Veidt.

In 1930, along with Leni Riefenstahl, he appeared in the mountain film Stürme über dem Mont Blanc/Avalanche (Arnold Fanck, 1930), and in 1932 he played the male lead in Riefenstahl's Das Blaue Licht/The Blue Light (Béla Balázs, Leni Riefenstahl, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1894/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3723/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3948/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Bavaria Filmkunst.

Actor of the State and Persona non grata

During the 1930s, at the height of his film career, Mathias Wieman acted in such productions as Mensch ohne Namen/The Man Without a Name (Gustav Ucicky, 1932), Die Herrin von Atlantis/L’ Atlantide/Queen of Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932) with Brigitte Helm, Die Gräfin von Monte Christo/The Countess of Monte Cristo (Karl Hartl, 1932), and Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen/Tales of Miss Hoffmann (Carl Lamac, 1933) with Anny Ondra,

After the rise of the Nazis he acted in Der Schimmelreiter/The Rider of the White Horse (Hans Deppe, Curt Oertel, 1934), Viktoria (Carl Hoffmann, 1935) with Luise Ullrich, Patrioten/Patriots (Karl Ritter, 1937), and Togger (Jürgen von Alten, 1937) with Paul Hartmann.

He had an international success with his appearance in Die ewige Maske/The Eternal Mask (Werner Hochbaum, 1935). The film was in 1937 nominated for an award at the Venice Film Festival, and awarded with the American National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Film.

Also in 1937, Wieman was made Staatsschauspieler, an honorary title bestowed by the German government and the highest honour attainable by an actor in Germany. In 1936 Wieman had produced the Frankenburger Würfelspiel of the Nazi playwright Eberhard Wolfgang Möller in association with the 1936 Summer Olympics and the inauguration of the Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne, and also played the Black Knight.

However, according to director Leopold Lindtberg, Wieman was eventually classed as ‘persona non grata’ by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda who was responsible for film production in Germany. This reduced Wieman’s activity. He took part in a few films like the Propaganda film Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) - possibly an act of punishment, Das andere Ich/The other I (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941), Paracelsus (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1943) starring Werner Krauss, Träumerei/Dreaming (Harald Braun, 1944) opposite Hilde Krahl, and Wie sagen wir es unseren Kindern/How Do We Tell Our Children (Hans Deppe, 1945).

After the failed 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Mathias and his wife Erika helped the family of Count Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg. This assistance, at great risk to themselves, is detailed by Charlotte von der Schulenburg in the book Courageous Hearts: Women and the Anti-Hitler Plot of 1944.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3306/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3435/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3571/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Binz.

Alfred Nobel

After World War II, Mathias Wieman was able to work more intensively in the film business again, normally in supporting roles. To his fairly well-known work belongs Herz der Welt/The Alfred Nobel Story (Harald Braun, 1952) in which Wieman portrayed Dr. Alfred Nobel, Solange du da bist/As Long as You're Near Me (Harald Braun, 1953), Der letzte Sommer/The Last Summer (Harald Braun, 1954), and Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Ulrich Erfurth, 1955).

He appeared opposite Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Girl and the Legend (Josef von Báky, 1957), and opposite Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini's La Paura/Fear (Roberto Rossellini, 1954).

Two of these films were in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: Herz Der Welt in 1952, and Solange Du Da Bist in 1954.

He also made many records of classic stories where he would narrate the story accompanied by orchestral music. On stage, Wieman appeared in countless productions, including Goethe's Faust, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, and Im Dickicht der Städte (In The Jungle of Cities) by Bertolt Brecht.

After the war Mathias Wieman and his wife Erika Meingast moved to Switzerland. In 1969 he died of cancer in Zurich, soon followed by his wife. The couple had no children.


East-German postcard by VEB Volkskunstverlag Reichenbach i.V., no. G 704, 1956. Photo: NDF / Schorchtfilm. Publicity still for Herz der Welt/The Alfred Nobel Story (Harald Braun, 1952).


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3078. Photo: Filmex NV. Publicity still for Robinson soll nicht sterben/The Girl and the Legend (Josef von Báky, 1957) with Romy Schneider and Mathias Wieman.

Sources: Dieter Svensson (Mathias Wieman Site), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Imported from the USA: Olive Moorefield

During the 1950s and 1960s, American singer and actress Olive Moorefield (1932) worked in Austria and West Germany. She starred on stage in musicals and operas, acted in several films, including Monpti (1957) with Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz, and Onkel Toms Hütte/Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1964), and she appeared in television shows.


German postcard by Ufa. Photo: Vogelmann / NDF / Herzog-film. Publicity still for Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 172. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).

Very unusual

Olive Moorefield was born in 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She had seven siblings. After attending the Pennsylvania College, she took singing and acting lessons. In October 1952 she debuted on Broadway in New York in the play My Darlin 'Aida.

Moorefield went on extensive European tour and settled down in 1953 in Vienna, Austria. There she received a commitment at the Vienna Volksoper. At the time, this was very unusual in Europe for a black artist. She celebrated her first success with the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate. Initially, she played the supporting role of Bianca, but later also the leading role of the Kate. Many other productions would follow in the next two decades and Moorefield became very popular among Viennese audiences.

Soon also parts in films followed. Moorefield first appeared as a singer in such Austrian films as the drama Das Licht der Liebe/The Light of Love (Robert A. Stemmle, 1954) with Paula Wessely, the comedy Liebe, die den Kopf verliert/Love that loses its head (Thomas Engel, 1956) starring Paul Hubschmid and the musical Scherben bringen Glück/Seven Years Hard Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1957) with Adrian Hoven.

She made several records and did not shy away from pop music. In Germany, she also appeared again as a singer in light entertainment as Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/To be a great lady for once (Erik Ode, 1957) and Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).

Her first bigger part was in the melancholic romantic comedy-drama Monpti/Love from Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957), starring Romy Schneider and Horst Bucholz, then Germany's biggest stars, as the young lovers. She also had a supporting part in Der schwarze Blitz/The black flash (Hans Grimm, 1958), featuring ski champion Toni Sailer.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. T 875. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Constantin / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. V 181. Photo: Kurt-Ulrich-Film / Wesel. Publicity still for Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (Géza von Cziffra, 1957).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2644. Photo: CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Arthur Grimm. Publicity still for Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/To be a great lady for once (Erik Ode, 1957).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. I 254. Photo: Grimm / CCC / Deutsche Film Hansa. Publicity still for Einmal eine grosse Dame sein/Once a great lady (Erik Ode, 1957).

Before Mandingo and Drum there was Uncle Tom's Cabin

Olive Moorefield had her first leading role in the cinema in the Austrian comedy Skandal um Dodo/Scandal around Dodo (Eduard von Borsody, 1959) opposite Harald Juhnke. After that she returned to guest parts as a singer in Riviera-Story/Riviera Story (Wolfgang Becker, 1961) with Ulla Jacobsson, and Straße der Verheißung/Street of Temptation (Imo Moszkowicz, 1962) starring Mario Adorf.

She had another another leading role in Onkel Toms Hütte/Uncle Tom's Cabin (Géza von Radványi, 1965). The film is based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic novel of the same name. In the pre-Civil War South, a sadistic plantation-owner (Herbert Lom) brutalises his slaves to the point of them having no other choice but to rebel. Always obedient, peaceful and honest old slave Tom (John Kitzmiller) plays a central role in this tragedy. Moorefield played the slave Cassy.

Jugu Abraham at IMDb: "While the film is true to Harriet Beecher Stowe's story, the director's implicit comparison of the past and present America (skyscraper skyline shown during the credits) is interesting. Eartha Kitt's song at the end is unforgettable. The film is distinctly European (the director is Hungarian) in style and the story and songs could merit a re-release." Actually, there was a curious American re-release in 1976,Uncle Tom's Cabin (Al Adamson, 1976), edited from the 1965 film but with new scenes added. It was promoted with the tagline 'Before Mandingo and Drum there was Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

In the following decade, Moorefield did not return to the cinema, but she kept appearing in the German-speaking theatre and on TV. She was Bess in the Vienna production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which was also televised. I

n 1969 Olive Moorefield married Dr. Kurt Mach, with whom she has a son, Oliver Mach. She gradually withdrew from the limelight into private life. In later years, her name (now Olive Moorefield-Mach) reappeared on the administrative side at music festivals.


Olive Moorefield sings Bongo Rock in Das alte Försterhaus (1956). Source: fritz51203 (YouTube).


Olive Moorefield sings Etwas leise Musik in Der schwarze Blitz/The black flash (1958) with Oliver Grimm. Source: fritz51203 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Tomas Milian (1933-2017)

On Wednesday 22 March 2017, Cuban-American actor Tomas Milian passed away. He worked extensively in Italian films from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. Milian played neurotic and sadistic killers in several Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and lone-wolf anti-heroes in violent action and police thrillers of the 1970s. Very popular in Italy were his crime-comedies of the late 1970s and 1980s. Besides these genre films, he worked with such prolific directors as Mauro Bolognini, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci and Michelangelo Antonioni. Tomas Milian was 84.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, in the series Artisti di sempre, no. 118.

Eyewitness

Tomas Milian was born as Tomás Quintín Rodríguez in Havana, Cuba in 1933 (some sources say 1932). His name is also written as Tomás Milián and Thomas Milian.

He is the son of Tomas Rodriguez, a general serving the dictatorship of Gerardo. His father was arrested and jailed after dictator Fulgencio Batista took power in Cuba in 1933. Rodriguez committed suicide in 1945 in his home, with Tomás as an eyewitness.

In 1955, Milian decided to leave Cuba. Arriving in Miami he worked in several small jobs. He joined the navy for a few months to get his American citizenship.

In New York he auditioned at the Actors Studio, where he was taught the seminal ‘Stanislavsky method’ of acting. He played on Broadway in Maidens and Mistresses at home at the Zoo. Author Meade Roberts had written the piece just for him. Milián also appeared on the short-lived television series Decoy in 1957.

In 1958 he went to Italy for a part in the play The Poet and the Muse by Jean Cocteau, which was performed at a theatre festival in Spoleto. There he decided to relocate, and he stayed in Italy for 30 years.

His Italian film debut was as a young Roman criminal in the social drama La notte brava/Bad Girls Don't Cry (Mauro Bolognini, 1959) with Rosanna Schiaffino and Elsa Martinelli. With Bolognini, he also worked on Il bell'Antonio/Handsome Antonio (Mauro Bolognini, 1960) with Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Milian appeared in other classic art house films such as I Delfini/The Dauphins (Francesco Maselli, 1960) starring Claudia Cardinale, and Luchino Visconti’s part of the anthology film Boccaccio '70 (1962), opposite Romy Schneider. In most of his Italian films, his voice was dubbed due to his accent. Milian performed his lines in Italian. Gradually he became a very successful performer in the European cinema.


Publicity still distributed by Rank in Germany (see the mark of the German censor FSK at the right). Thomas Milian and Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's episode Il Lavoro in the episode film Boccaccio 70 (1962). Milian plays a bored aristocrat, caught in a scandal with callgirls. Schneider plays his rich and equally bored Austrian wife, who tries to seduce her husband and make him pay for love just like he did with his callgirls. It works, but leaves the woman with bitterness. The set of the film was very costly because of all the authentic, valuable objects present.

An Unexpected Boost

After five years of making what he deemed ‘intellectual’ films, Tomas Milian was unhappy with his contract with producer Franco Cristaldi and thought of going back to the United States.

Needing money to start over, he took the opportunity to star as a bandit in the Spaghetti Western El precio de un hombre/The Bounty Killer (Eugenio Martin, 1966). This Spanish-Italian production gave his career an unexpected boost, and ultimately resulted in his staying in Italy.

His next Western was La resa dei conti/The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966) with Lee Van Cleef. According to Wikipedia it falls in to the subgenre called Zapata Westerns: Spaghetti Westerns with some political context usually concerning the Mexican revolution.

Milian played Cuchillo, a charming rogue accused of rape and murder. He played the role again in Corri, uomo, corri/Run, Man, Run! (Sergio Sollima, 1968) with Gian Maria Volonté. Milián became a star of the Spaghetti Western genre.

Among his films are the brutally violent Se sei vivo spara/Django Kill (Giulio Questi, 1967), Sentenza di morte/Death Sentence (Mario Lanfranchi, 1968) starring Richard Conte, and Vamos a matar, compañeros/Compañeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970) with Franco Nero.

Milian often played Mexican bandits or revolutionaries, roles in which he spoke in his real voice. When the Spaghetti Western dwindled, Milián remained a star. He starred in the drama I cannibali/The Cannibals (Liliana Cavani, 1970), inspired by the Antigone of Sophocles.

He had a supporting part in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie (1971), which won the Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, but failed financially and critically. More successful was the Giallo Non si sevizia un paperino/Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972) in which he starred with Barbara Bouchet.

Milian also excelled in another genre, the Poliziotteschi (Italian police crime films). His first film in this genre Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare/Almost Human (1974) lead to five more films with the director, Umberto Lenzi.


East-German card by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2371, 1965. Retail price: 0,20 MDN.

Cult Performer

In the late 1970s, Tomas Milian turned to comedy. In Il trucido e lo sbirro/Free Hand for a Tough Cop (Umberto Lenzi, 1976), Milian played for the first time the petty thief Sergio Marazzi aka ‘Er Monnezza’, a role that he later played two more times.

Another recurring character was the Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi, which he played in 12 crime-comedies. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time by Ferruccio Amendola, Milian wrote his own lines in Roman slang. Milián's inventive use of romanesco (roman dialect) made him somewhat of a cult performer in Italy, even though his later films were critically panned.

Wikipedia cites Bruno Corbucci, the director of many of these films: "At the cinemas as soon as Tomás Milian appeared on the screen, when he made a wisecrack and in the heaviest situations, then it was a pandemonium, it was like being at the stadium."

As Milian used similar make-ups and accents in portraying both characters, Monnezza and Nico were occasionally confused by Italian audiences. In Italy, Milián is now still associated with these performances.

Occasionally he appeared in non-genre pictures, such as Bernardo Bertolucci's La Luna/Luna (1979), for which he won a Nastro d'Argento for Best supporting Actor, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Identificazione di una donna/Identification of a Woman (1982). In the latter, Milián plays a divorced middle-aged filmmaker searching for a woman to play the leading role in his next film, and also in his life. The film was awarded the 35th Anniversary Prize at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

During his 30 years in Italy, Milian received two major awards for his contribution, the Antonio de Curtis Award for Comedy and the Coppa Del Consiglio Dei Ministri from the Italian government. In 1989, he decided to go back to the United States.

He played character parts in Revenge (Tony Scott, 1990), Amistad (Steven Spielberg, 1997) and Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000). He also performed on stage. More recently he appeared in Andy Garcia’s Cuban drama The Lost City (2005), and in the political thriller The Feast of the Goat (Luis Llosa, 2006), based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.

Tomas Milian died in Miami, Florida, where he had lived in retirement. Since 1964, he was married to Rita Valletti. They had one son, Tommasso. Milian was 84.


Trailer Faccia a faccia/Face to Face (Sergio Solima, 1967). Source: Cultcinedotcom (YouTube).


Trailer Roma a mano armata/The Tough Ones (Umberto Lenzi, 1976). Source: Thomas Crommentuyn (YouTube).


Trailer Identificazione di una donna/Identification of a Woman (1982). Source: Tomas Milian (YouTube).

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Tom B. (Westerns... All’ Italiana), The Spaghetti Western Database, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Carte Blanche for Everything Croton

Everything Croton is a blog that reports on local issues in the village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York. But editor Maria also loves all things vintage and at least a third of the posts are reserved for movies, vintage Christmas, history, antiques, and such. We gave Maria carte blanche for this guest post and she chose some of her favourite EFSP posts, some with a 'Croton-on-Hudson' connection.

Imported from the USA: Gloria Swanson


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1488/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount / Parafumet. Publicity still for Stage Struck (Allan Dwan, 1925).

Maria: "Swanson lived in Croton-on-Hudson in the 1920s. You can read more about that here."


Erich von Stroheim


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 20a. Photo: Fox.

"Erich von Stroheim, a most talented director and actor, rumored—but never confirmed--to have spent time in Croton at the Swanson estate."


Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. 133/3. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925) with Messala (Francis X. Bushman) and Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) during the famous chariot race. Mark how the tribunes are empty and the upper part of the circus is missing (it was projected into the film using a hanging model).

"Former matinee idol Francis X. Bushman also had a Croton-on-Hudson connection."


Charles Chaplin


French postcard by Editions Cinematographiques, no. 499. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Chaplin (1992)


French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 813. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992), which featured Robert Downey Jr. as Charles Spencer Chaplin.

"Chaplin also had a Croton connection to the editor of The Masses, Max Eastman."


Our Gang's Jean Darling and Dickie Moore R.I.P.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4356/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still of Our Gang a.k.a. The Little Rascals with Jean Darling, the blonde girl.

"The Little Rascals post from EFSP - because they still have lots of fans here in Croton!"


Merry Christmas!


Jayne Mansfield. French postcard by Edition Humour a la carte. Photo: Filmhistorisches Bildarchiv Peter W. Engelmeier.

"The 2016 EFSP Merry Christmas post."

Thank you Maria, and greetings from us here at EFSP to everybody in Croton!