20 May 2018

Giorgia Moll

During the 1950s and 1960s, beautiful Italian actress and singer Giorgia Moll (1938) could often be seen on television and in the cinema, especially in many Italian B-films. With her pretty face and dream measurements, she became also a popular cover and pin-up model.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/49.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4954. Photo: Angelo Frontoni / Unitalia Film.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 5171. Photo: Fried Agency / Ufa.

Giorgia Moll
Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 174.

Giorgia Moll
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 164.

Tempestuous Affair


Giorgia (also Georgia) Moll was born in Prata de Pordenone (some sources say Rome), Italy in 1938 to a German father and an Italian-German mother.

Still very young, she started as a model for advertisements of Carosello reclamizzante, an in Italy well-known toothpaste product. In 1955 she won the beauty contest Miss Cinema.

Producer Carlo Ponti suggested her to take a screentest. Only seventeen, she was hired for her first film, Non scherzare con le donne/Don't Trifle with Women (Giuseppe Bennati, 1955) with Rossana Podestà.

Moll figured in such Italian films as the comedy Lo svitato/Unscrew Him (Carlo Lizzani, 1955) starring Dario Fo, Mio figlio Nerone/My Son Nero (Steno, 1956) with Alberto Sordi and Gloria Swanson, and Mariti in città/Husbands in the City (Luigi Comencini, 1957) opposite Renato Salvatori.

At the time, she was reportedly a girlfriend of Joe Di Maggio, the legendary baseball player and former husband of Marilyn Monroe. Later she had a tempestuous affair with actor John Barrymore Jr., Drew Barrymore’s father.

Most of her films were undistinguished comedies and Peplums, but she did appear in a few well-known productions. Her biggest film was The Quiet American (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1958) based on Graham Greene's prophetic novel about U.S. foreign policy failure in pre-war Indochina, and starring American actor and war-hero Audie Murphy.

The film was shot in Cinécitta with some location shooting in Saigon. Moll played Phuong, Murphy's Vietnamese mistress. The part gave her a certain international notoriety. The Quiet American was critically well-received, but was not considered a box office success.

Giorgia Moll in The Quiet American (1958)
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1616. Photo: Dear Film. Publicity still for The Quiet American (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1958).

Rex Gildo, Rocco Granata
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4687. Photo: Hafbo. Publicity still for the Schlagerfilm Marina (Paul Martin, 1960), which was distributed in Holland as Teenagers Schlager Parade. Moll played the titel character and she poses here between Schlager star Rex Gildo and Rocco Granata, singer of the hit song Marina.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 1357. Photo: Grimm / CCC-film / Gloria. Publicity still for Marina (Paul Martin, 1960).

Giorgia Moll in Marina (1960)
German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3062. Photo: Grimm / CCC-film / Gloria. Publicity still for Marina (Paul Martin, 1960).

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Filmvertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 637. Photo: CCC Gloria Film / Grimm. Publicity still for Marina (Paul Martin, 1960).

Unforgettable Tearjerker


Giorgia Moll was critically apprecciated for her dramatic performance in Damiano Damiani's feature debut, the crime drama Il rossetto/Lipstick (1960) with Pierre Brice.

In 1963, she appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s classic film-about-film Le Mépris/The Contempt (1963), which starred Brigitte Bardot. Moll played Francesca Vanini, the secretary of the authoritarian film producer (Jack Palance), who works as a translator for the film’s protagonist, a script-writer played by Michel Piccoli.

Another classic in which she played a supporting part is the drama Incompresa/Misunderstood (Luigi Comencini, 1967). In this unforgettable tearjerker Anthony Quayle plays a widower who tragically misunderstands his eldest son’s brave front as being unaffected by his mother's death.

During the 1960’s, Georgia Moll also became known as a singer. She recorded some singles, of which Ballata per un amore perduto/Nato in settembre (Ballad for a Lost Love/Born in September, 1964) is best known. Author of the texts of both songs is Piero Ciampi, and the arranger and composer of Nato in settembre is Elvio Monti.

With her harmonious face, her perfect brown hair and her dream measurements, she was also a popular pin-up model in this period, for instance in the magazine Playmen in 1972. After 1970, her appearances became sporadic and she retired from the cinema in 1985.

Her last screen appearances were in the film Tutti dentro/Everybody in Jail (Alberto Sordi, 1984) with Alberto Sordi and Joe Pesci, and the TV film I due prigionieri/The Two Prisoners (Anton Giulio Majano, 1985) with Ray Lovelock and Alain Cuny.

Later, Giorgia Moll became a photographer.

Giorgia Moll
Big Italian card by Bromofoto, Milano. Photo: Günther Wagner / Pelikan.

Giorgia Moll
Italian postcard, no. 592.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4971. Photo: Angelo Frontoni /Unitalia Film.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 1666.

Giorgia Moll
Serbian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 276.

Giorgia Moll
Serbian postcard by Studio Sombor, no. 276. Sent by mail in Yugoslavia in 1965.

Giorgia Moll
German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengestellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4860. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Horst Maack/Ufa.


Trailer for Le Mépris/The Contempt (1963). Source: The Cultbox (YouTube).

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

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