Danish actress Ann Smyrner (1934-2016) was the glamorous star of more than 50 European B-films of the 1950s and 1960s. The blonde sex bomb spent most of her screen career in Germany. After appearing in several sex comedies, she retired and started to study theology.
German postcard by WS Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 118. Photo: Hansa-Film.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 2909. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film-Hansa. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 43.
German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Templehof, no. S. A. 2. Photo: Friedrich Aschenbroich / Hansa-Film / Günter Matern.
Hanne Smyrner was born in 1934 in Frederiksborg, Denmark. Her father, Poul Smyrner, was one of the leading actors of the Det Kongelige Teater (The Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen) and had an acting school in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. Her mother, Gerd Henriette Poulsen, was a concert singer.
Hanne attended the acting school in Aarhus in 1955 and 1956 and started her career in the Theatre of Aarhus. At 22, she went to Munich. In Germany, she made her film debut in Von Allen Geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957) with Magda Schneider and Johannes Heesters. It was filmed at the Bendestorf studios near Hamburg.
That same year, she was chosen among a thousand girls to play the title role opposite Adrian Hoven in the crime comedy Lilli - ein Mädchen aus der Großstadt/Lilli – a Girl from the Big City (Hermann Leitner, 1958), based on a comic strip from the boulevard daily Bild. She was presented as a blonde sex bomb in this film, and that image stuck with her.
Next she was the threat to the love interest of Caterina Valente in Hier bin ich, hier bleib' ich/Here I Am, Here I Stay (Werner Jacobs, 1959), a Schlagerfilm with a guest appearance of Bill Haley and His Comets.
In 1960, she became the female lead in the American-Danish Monster film Reptilicus (Poul Bang, Sidney W. Pink, 1961), when actress Nora Hayden refused second billing and walked out on the production. This curious Fantasy film by American director Sidney W. Pink about the regeneration of a prehistoric reptile was shot in the botanical garden of Copenhagen. According to the reviewer at IMDb, Reptilicus is "without a doubt the best BAD movie ever made".
Smyrner appeared in another Fantasy epic by Pink, Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962), starring John Agar. She played one of her better roles as a woman in love in the Austrian 'Sachtertorte' Romanze in Venedig/Romance in Venice (Eduard von Borsody, 1962) with Walter Reyer.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2686. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Lilo. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2171. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Lilo. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 423. Photo: Kolibri / Enzwieser.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3308. Photo: Rapid/Union. Publicity still for Die Insel der Amazonen/Seven Daring Girls (Otto Meyer, 1960).
In 1963, Ann Smyrner started a much publicised affair with co-star Lex Barker while filming the adventure film Das Todesauge von Ceylon/Scarlet Eye (Gerd Oswald, Giovanni Roccardi, 1963). She again co-starred with Barker in the comedy Frühstück im Doppelbett/Breakfast in Bed (Axel von Ambesser, 1963) starring O.W. Fischer and Liselotte Pulver.
In 1964, she became heiress to a 4-5 Million DM fortune. She was on location in South Africa for her first British film, the detective Victim Five (Robert Lynn, 1964) starring Lex Barker again.
During the 1960s, she mostly appeared in mediocre B-films. Her credits include Die Schwarze Kobra/The Black Cobra (Rudolf Zehetgruber, 1963) with Adrian Hoven, the Edgar Wallace mystery Das Siebente Opfer/The Racetrack Murders (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1964) with Hansjörg Felmy, and the action film Kommissar X - Drei gelbe Katzen/Death Is Nimble, Death Is Quick (Rudolf Zehetgruber, 1966) starring Tony Kendall and Brad Harris.
Internationally, she appeared in the French historic adventureAngélique et le roi/Angelique and the King (Bernard Borderie, 1966) starring Michèle Mercier, the Polish Sci-Fi film Kiedy milosc byla zbrodnia/Rassenschande: When Love Was a Crime (Jan Rybkowski, 1968), and the Spaghetti Western Al di là della legge/The Good Die First (Giorgio Stegani, 1968) starring Lee Van Cleef.
In 1968 she suffered a total breakdown on the Zurich-Rome express. Afterwards she was in a Danish hospital for six weeks.
She quickly returned to the screen and appeared in sex comedies like Zu dumm zum.../Too Stupid to… (Henry van Lyck, 1971), and the cross-dressing farce Tante Trude aus Buxtehude/Aunt Trude from Buxtehude (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1971), a vehicle for TV star Rudi Carrell.
Allegedly, she practiced witchcraft for 17 years until renouncing it in 1970. In 1972, Smyrner retired from the cinema and started to study theology. In the early 1990s she moved to Benalmadena, near Malaga, Spain, where she wrote articles and books about religious and esoteric subjects.
In 2016, Ann Smyrner passed away in Benalmadena at the age of 81. Her longtime companion was Danish journalist Ole Hansen. Smyrner is interred in Aarhus, Denmark.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3124. Photo: Brigitte Dittner / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH). Publicity still for Himmel, Amor und Zwirn/Heaven, Cupid and Linen Thread (Ulrich Erfurth, 1960).
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. A 311. Photo: Hansa-Film / Relang.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. A 1611. Photo: Story-Press / J. Clauss.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenbrug, no. A 1611. Photo: Story / Press / J. Clauss.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1898, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for Drei Liebesbriefe aus Tirol/Three Love Letters from Tirol (Werner Jacobs, 1962).
Sources: Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.
German postcard by WS Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. F 118. Photo: Hansa-Film.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 2909. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film-Hansa. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
Belgian postcard by Cox, no. 43.
German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Templehof, no. S. A. 2. Photo: Friedrich Aschenbroich / Hansa-Film / Günter Matern.
The Best BAD Movie Ever Made
Hanne Smyrner was born in 1934 in Frederiksborg, Denmark. Her father, Poul Smyrner, was one of the leading actors of the Det Kongelige Teater (The Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen) and had an acting school in Aarhus, the second-largest city in Denmark. Her mother, Gerd Henriette Poulsen, was a concert singer.
Hanne attended the acting school in Aarhus in 1955 and 1956 and started her career in the Theatre of Aarhus. At 22, she went to Munich. In Germany, she made her film debut in Von Allen Geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957) with Magda Schneider and Johannes Heesters. It was filmed at the Bendestorf studios near Hamburg.
That same year, she was chosen among a thousand girls to play the title role opposite Adrian Hoven in the crime comedy Lilli - ein Mädchen aus der Großstadt/Lilli – a Girl from the Big City (Hermann Leitner, 1958), based on a comic strip from the boulevard daily Bild. She was presented as a blonde sex bomb in this film, and that image stuck with her.
Next she was the threat to the love interest of Caterina Valente in Hier bin ich, hier bleib' ich/Here I Am, Here I Stay (Werner Jacobs, 1959), a Schlagerfilm with a guest appearance of Bill Haley and His Comets.
In 1960, she became the female lead in the American-Danish Monster film Reptilicus (Poul Bang, Sidney W. Pink, 1961), when actress Nora Hayden refused second billing and walked out on the production. This curious Fantasy film by American director Sidney W. Pink about the regeneration of a prehistoric reptile was shot in the botanical garden of Copenhagen. According to the reviewer at IMDb, Reptilicus is "without a doubt the best BAD movie ever made".
Smyrner appeared in another Fantasy epic by Pink, Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962), starring John Agar. She played one of her better roles as a woman in love in the Austrian 'Sachtertorte' Romanze in Venedig/Romance in Venice (Eduard von Borsody, 1962) with Walter Reyer.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2686. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Lilo. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2171. Photo: Hansa-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH) / Lilo. Publicity still for Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 423. Photo: Kolibri / Enzwieser.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3308. Photo: Rapid/Union. Publicity still for Die Insel der Amazonen/Seven Daring Girls (Otto Meyer, 1960).
Heiress of a fortune
In 1963, Ann Smyrner started a much publicised affair with co-star Lex Barker while filming the adventure film Das Todesauge von Ceylon/Scarlet Eye (Gerd Oswald, Giovanni Roccardi, 1963). She again co-starred with Barker in the comedy Frühstück im Doppelbett/Breakfast in Bed (Axel von Ambesser, 1963) starring O.W. Fischer and Liselotte Pulver.
In 1964, she became heiress to a 4-5 Million DM fortune. She was on location in South Africa for her first British film, the detective Victim Five (Robert Lynn, 1964) starring Lex Barker again.
During the 1960s, she mostly appeared in mediocre B-films. Her credits include Die Schwarze Kobra/The Black Cobra (Rudolf Zehetgruber, 1963) with Adrian Hoven, the Edgar Wallace mystery Das Siebente Opfer/The Racetrack Murders (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1964) with Hansjörg Felmy, and the action film Kommissar X - Drei gelbe Katzen/Death Is Nimble, Death Is Quick (Rudolf Zehetgruber, 1966) starring Tony Kendall and Brad Harris.
Internationally, she appeared in the French historic adventureAngélique et le roi/Angelique and the King (Bernard Borderie, 1966) starring Michèle Mercier, the Polish Sci-Fi film Kiedy milosc byla zbrodnia/Rassenschande: When Love Was a Crime (Jan Rybkowski, 1968), and the Spaghetti Western Al di là della legge/The Good Die First (Giorgio Stegani, 1968) starring Lee Van Cleef.
In 1968 she suffered a total breakdown on the Zurich-Rome express. Afterwards she was in a Danish hospital for six weeks.
She quickly returned to the screen and appeared in sex comedies like Zu dumm zum.../Too Stupid to… (Henry van Lyck, 1971), and the cross-dressing farce Tante Trude aus Buxtehude/Aunt Trude from Buxtehude (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1971), a vehicle for TV star Rudi Carrell.
Allegedly, she practiced witchcraft for 17 years until renouncing it in 1970. In 1972, Smyrner retired from the cinema and started to study theology. In the early 1990s she moved to Benalmadena, near Malaga, Spain, where she wrote articles and books about religious and esoteric subjects.
In 2016, Ann Smyrner passed away in Benalmadena at the age of 81. Her longtime companion was Danish journalist Ole Hansen. Smyrner is interred in Aarhus, Denmark.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3124. Photo: Brigitte Dittner / Deutsche Film Hansa (DFH). Publicity still for Himmel, Amor und Zwirn/Heaven, Cupid and Linen Thread (Ulrich Erfurth, 1960).
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. A 311. Photo: Hansa-Film / Relang.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. A 1611. Photo: Story-Press / J. Clauss.
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenbrug, no. A 1611. Photo: Story / Press / J. Clauss.
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1898, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for Drei Liebesbriefe aus Tirol/Three Love Letters from Tirol (Werner Jacobs, 1962).
Sources: Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.
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