Sexy French starlet Sophie Hardy (1944) was a popular pin-up in the mid-1960s. She was often pictured by glamour photographer Bruno Bernard, better known as Bernard of Hollywood. First the blonde actress appeared as eye-candy in French films, and later she was a successful leading lady in popular German, English and Spanish productions.
German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/290. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood. This is one of our most popular filmcards on Flickr: over 43,000 views and counting.
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 317, offered by Corvisart. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Barcelona, no. 127. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Sophie Hardy was born in Paris, France in 1944. She got acting lessons from Françoise Rosay and Yves Furet. At the Sorbonne she studied American literature.
In 1960 she made her film debut in the Philippinean production Pitong gabi sa Paris/A Philippine in Paris (Eddie Romero, 1960).
In 1962, small parts followed in such films as the tragi-comedy Un clair de lune à Maubeuge/Moonlight in Maubeuge (Jean Chérasse, 1962) with Claude Brasseur and Michel Serrault, and the Film Noir La loi des hommes/Law of Men (Charles Gérard, 1962) starring Micheline Presle.
The next years she appeared in the French-Italian Swashbuckler Hardi! Pardaillan/The Gallant Musketeer (Bernard Borderie, 1963), starring Gérard Barray. She had her first big role in L'étrange auto-stoppeuse/The strange hitch-hiker (Jean Darcy, 1964) with Georges Marchal.
Opposite tough-guy Eddie Constantine she was the leading lady in the detective film Des frissons partout/Jeff Gordon, Secret Agent (Raoul André, 1964).
German postcards by Krüger, no. 902/311 and no. 902/292. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
German postcards by Kruger, no. 902/310 and no. 902/289. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
Sophie Hardy went to Germany to play one of the lead roles in the softcore sex film Treibgut der Liebe/La baie du désir/The Erotic Touch of Hot Skin (Max Pécas, 1964) about sex, murder, false identities, car crashes, and striptease at the French Riviera.
Hal Erickson at AllMovie comments: "A fine cast does wonders with tawdry material. (...) In case you aren't interested in sex and sin, be advised that Erotic Touch of Hot Skin runs only 78 minutes, hardly long enough to induce boredom."
She stayed in Germany for more big parts in the popular Edgar Wallace adaptations Der Hexer/The Mysterious Magician (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Joachim Fuchsberger, and Das Geheimnis der weissen Nonne/The Trygon Factor (Cyril Frankel, 1966), in which she co-starred with Stewart Granger. Der Hexer was adapted from the 1925 novel by Edgar Wallace titled The Ringer (originally: The Gaunt Stranger) and Das Geheimnis der weissen Nonne is based on the Edgar Wallace novel Kate Plus Ten.
She also co-starred in the Karl May Western Winnetou III/The Desperado Trail (Harald Reinl, 1965) featuring Pierre Brice.
At the time she was a popular model for film and glamour magazines, such as Cinémonde, Ciné-Revue and V magazine in France, Er in Germany and Modern Man in the US.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 162/70. Photo: Steffen.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 165/70. Photo: publicity still for Der Hexer/The Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Heinz Drache and Joachim Fuchsberger.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 127/70. Photo: Unifrance Film.
In Spain, Sophie Hardy appeared as a go-go dancer in the enjoyable Sci-Fi/Spy-Comedy Cartas boca arriba/Attack of the Robots (Jesus Franco, 1966) again opposite Eddie Constantine.
Rod Barnett writes as his blog Bloody Pit of Rod: "This evening (as threatened) I watched Jess Franco's ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS (1966) a.k.a. CARTES SUR TABLE and enjoyed it quite a lot. Its a fun comedy/spy adventure with some great fights, some fun dialog and a nice breezy style. But the most impressive thing visually was actress Sophia Hardy. Wowsa! She has a kind of 'pixie dream girl' thing going on with a smile that could melt steel plating. In this film she had dark hair but from the photos I can find she may have actually been a blond. Or not. I don't care!"
Hardy traveled to London to play the title figure in the Swinging Sixties comedy Three Hats for Lisa (Sidney Hayers, 1965), typically her role was that of a foreign film star in London, who asks two young fans to steal some hats for her collection. The star-struck youths agree until they learn that she wants a bobby's helmet, a businessman's bowler, and a palace guard's cap.
After this busy career period it became quiet around Hardy. The next years she was only seen in a supporting role in the British spy thriller A Taste of Excitement (Don Sharp, 1969) starring Eva Renzi. Its U.S. title was Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You?
Hardy also appeared in the sexy psychological drama Road to Salina (Georges Lautner, 1970), a French-Italian coproduction with Robert Walker, Mimsy Farmer and Rita Hayworth in one of her last roles.
German postcards by Kruger, no. 902/291 and no. 902/293. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
Sophie Hardy's film career then had a long interruption of more than 20 years, in which she worked for a year as a presenter for the television of Luxemburg.
In 1994 she returned to the screen in a small role in the TV film Jules (Christian Palligiano, 1994).
Six years later she made a come back as the grandmother of Aurélien Wiik in an episode of the Scénarios sur la drogue/Drug Scenes/Drugs! (2000). Scénarios sur la drogue is an omnibus film (2000) of 24 French short films depicting drug abuse. Varying in length from three to seven minutes, they were showed in cinemas before feature films. Sophie Hardy appeared in the episode La Puré, which was directed by Seb and Simon Lelouch, sons of famous director Claude Lelouch.
Sophie Hardy was later seen in Casablanca Driver (Maurice Barthélémy, 2004), a fictional documentary about a man who wants to become a boxer.
Her most recent TV credit is a guest role in the long-running Soap opera Plus belle la vie/PBLV (2012). And two years later she appeared in the short comedy-drama C'est le ciel qui vous envoie!/You are heaven sent (Pierre Aboujaoude, 2014).
Trailer for The Erotic Touch Of Hot Skin (1965). Source: Vulture Graffix (YouTube).
Trailer for Der Hexer/The Mysterious Magician (1964). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).
Trailer for Winnetou III/The Desperado Trail (1965). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rod Barnett (Bloody Pit of Rod), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Cinéthéa, Wikipedia(German and English) and IMDb.
German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/290. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood. This is one of our most popular filmcards on Flickr: over 43,000 views and counting.
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 317, offered by Corvisart. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Barcelona, no. 127. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Sexy Crime Film
Sophie Hardy was born in Paris, France in 1944. She got acting lessons from Françoise Rosay and Yves Furet. At the Sorbonne she studied American literature.
In 1960 she made her film debut in the Philippinean production Pitong gabi sa Paris/A Philippine in Paris (Eddie Romero, 1960).
In 1962, small parts followed in such films as the tragi-comedy Un clair de lune à Maubeuge/Moonlight in Maubeuge (Jean Chérasse, 1962) with Claude Brasseur and Michel Serrault, and the Film Noir La loi des hommes/Law of Men (Charles Gérard, 1962) starring Micheline Presle.
The next years she appeared in the French-Italian Swashbuckler Hardi! Pardaillan/The Gallant Musketeer (Bernard Borderie, 1963), starring Gérard Barray. She had her first big role in L'étrange auto-stoppeuse/The strange hitch-hiker (Jean Darcy, 1964) with Georges Marchal.
Opposite tough-guy Eddie Constantine she was the leading lady in the detective film Des frissons partout/Jeff Gordon, Secret Agent (Raoul André, 1964).
German postcards by Krüger, no. 902/311 and no. 902/292. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
German postcards by Kruger, no. 902/310 and no. 902/289. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
Winnetou
Sophie Hardy went to Germany to play one of the lead roles in the softcore sex film Treibgut der Liebe/La baie du désir/The Erotic Touch of Hot Skin (Max Pécas, 1964) about sex, murder, false identities, car crashes, and striptease at the French Riviera.
Hal Erickson at AllMovie comments: "A fine cast does wonders with tawdry material. (...) In case you aren't interested in sex and sin, be advised that Erotic Touch of Hot Skin runs only 78 minutes, hardly long enough to induce boredom."
She stayed in Germany for more big parts in the popular Edgar Wallace adaptations Der Hexer/The Mysterious Magician (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Joachim Fuchsberger, and Das Geheimnis der weissen Nonne/The Trygon Factor (Cyril Frankel, 1966), in which she co-starred with Stewart Granger. Der Hexer was adapted from the 1925 novel by Edgar Wallace titled The Ringer (originally: The Gaunt Stranger) and Das Geheimnis der weissen Nonne is based on the Edgar Wallace novel Kate Plus Ten.
She also co-starred in the Karl May Western Winnetou III/The Desperado Trail (Harald Reinl, 1965) featuring Pierre Brice.
At the time she was a popular model for film and glamour magazines, such as Cinémonde, Ciné-Revue and V magazine in France, Er in Germany and Modern Man in the US.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 162/70. Photo: Steffen.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 165/70. Photo: publicity still for Der Hexer/The Ringer (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Heinz Drache and Joachim Fuchsberger.
East-German postcard by Progress, no. 127/70. Photo: Unifrance Film.
Pixie Dream Girl
In Spain, Sophie Hardy appeared as a go-go dancer in the enjoyable Sci-Fi/Spy-Comedy Cartas boca arriba/Attack of the Robots (Jesus Franco, 1966) again opposite Eddie Constantine.
Rod Barnett writes as his blog Bloody Pit of Rod: "This evening (as threatened) I watched Jess Franco's ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS (1966) a.k.a. CARTES SUR TABLE and enjoyed it quite a lot. Its a fun comedy/spy adventure with some great fights, some fun dialog and a nice breezy style. But the most impressive thing visually was actress Sophia Hardy. Wowsa! She has a kind of 'pixie dream girl' thing going on with a smile that could melt steel plating. In this film she had dark hair but from the photos I can find she may have actually been a blond. Or not. I don't care!"
Hardy traveled to London to play the title figure in the Swinging Sixties comedy Three Hats for Lisa (Sidney Hayers, 1965), typically her role was that of a foreign film star in London, who asks two young fans to steal some hats for her collection. The star-struck youths agree until they learn that she wants a bobby's helmet, a businessman's bowler, and a palace guard's cap.
After this busy career period it became quiet around Hardy. The next years she was only seen in a supporting role in the British spy thriller A Taste of Excitement (Don Sharp, 1969) starring Eva Renzi. Its U.S. title was Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You?
Hardy also appeared in the sexy psychological drama Road to Salina (Georges Lautner, 1970), a French-Italian coproduction with Robert Walker, Mimsy Farmer and Rita Hayworth in one of her last roles.
German postcards by Kruger, no. 902/291 and no. 902/293. Photos: Bernard of Hollywood.
Come Back
Sophie Hardy's film career then had a long interruption of more than 20 years, in which she worked for a year as a presenter for the television of Luxemburg.
In 1994 she returned to the screen in a small role in the TV film Jules (Christian Palligiano, 1994).
Six years later she made a come back as the grandmother of Aurélien Wiik in an episode of the Scénarios sur la drogue/Drug Scenes/Drugs! (2000). Scénarios sur la drogue is an omnibus film (2000) of 24 French short films depicting drug abuse. Varying in length from three to seven minutes, they were showed in cinemas before feature films. Sophie Hardy appeared in the episode La Puré, which was directed by Seb and Simon Lelouch, sons of famous director Claude Lelouch.
Sophie Hardy was later seen in Casablanca Driver (Maurice Barthélémy, 2004), a fictional documentary about a man who wants to become a boxer.
Her most recent TV credit is a guest role in the long-running Soap opera Plus belle la vie/PBLV (2012). And two years later she appeared in the short comedy-drama C'est le ciel qui vous envoie!/You are heaven sent (Pierre Aboujaoude, 2014).
Trailer for The Erotic Touch Of Hot Skin (1965). Source: Vulture Graffix (YouTube).
Trailer for Der Hexer/The Mysterious Magician (1964). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).
Trailer for Winnetou III/The Desperado Trail (1965). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Rod Barnett (Bloody Pit of Rod), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Cinéthéa, Wikipedia(German and English) and IMDb.
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