Last year, film historian Ivo Blom did an interesting find, a series of sepia postcards of three lost, silent films from the former Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes, now Croatia. The films were produced by the short-lived studio Croatia Film and distributed in 1919 by Jugoslavija Film in Zagreb. On 25 October 2018, EFSP did a post on the drama Dvije sirote/Dvije sirotice/The Two Orphans (Alfred Grinhut a.k.a. Alfred Grünhut, 1918). Today follows the second post, Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918), starring Austrian actress Gina Klitsch in the title role.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 1. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Ivo Badallic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 2. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Ivo Badallic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 3. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Milica Mihicic.
Domestic film production in Croatia started during the First World War. In 1917, Hamilkar Bošković and Julien Bergmann founded the first Croatian film company, Croatia. They engaged Croatian actors and directors and Austrian technicians. At the end of 1918 Bošković and Bergmann sold their rights to the new company Hermes or New Croatia, which was active until 1920.
About their production Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918), former film historian Peter Volk wrote that only photos and some notes were left. However, he condemned the film as pretending to display a mundane melodrama but not being able to veil its technical shortcomings. Therefore, Sreten Jovanovic, in his 1976 text Metodoloski pristup istoriji jugoslovenske kinematografije sa posebnim osvrtom na kinematografiju u Zagrebu 1917-1923, is rather critical of Volk's judgements. The film itself is still lost, so we cannot check the qualities for ourselves.
In 1917 a stage play came out at the London Haymarket theatre, called The Lady in the Black Mask, by Tom Gallon, whose last work this was before he died. Perhaps the film was based on it. The play begins in a theatre with the heroine, Ruth, watching a play. Arriving home from the theatre, Damia, the girl whose companion she is, pleads fatigue and persuades her to go out again to a masked ball, wearing the dress and indeed assuming the personality of her mistress. The two girls live in a gloomy house with old Mr. Verinder, who is Damia's guardian. But when Ruth returns from the ball, Verinder has been stabbed during Ruth's absence. As no one knows, or would ever believe, that it was Damia and not herself who had remained at home, Ruth is in a pretty bad situation. Moreover, it is not sure whether Damia really killed Verinder...
Little is known about director Robert Staerk. After Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask, he returned to the film sets after a gap of a decade, to act instead of direct. Between 1928 and 1932 he acted in three German films.
Very little is also known about the actress Gina Klitsch, who played the lead in the film. She is named Tina Klitsch on IMDb, and it would have been her only film. However, there was an Austrian actress Gina Puch-Klitsch. She was the sister of Austrian film star Olaf Fjord, originally Ämilian Maximilian Pouch. Puch-Klitsch played in three Austrian films in 1920, produced by her brother's company Fjord-Film, and starring himself. In 1922 she was Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) in Ludwig II (Otto Kreisler, 1922), opposite her brother in the title role. In 1930 she had a major part opposite Oscar Marion and Attila Hörbiger in the Austrian film Die Tat des Andreas Harmer/The act of Andreas Harmer (Alfred Deutsch, 1930).
Milica Mihicic (1864–1950) was a Croatian actress known for her early part in Dama sa crnom krinkom (1918). As a pupil of the Croatian actor and director Mandrović, Mihicic debuted in 1890 at the Croatian National Theatre. She was accepted and worked over 50 years on this stage. She acted often in plays by such French authors as Ohnet, Bourdet, etc., whose characterts she was able to enliven with fine irony. She also appeared in the realistic and psychological plays by Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Pirandello etc. Mihicic was an important supporter of local plays by Vojnović, Begović (sd.), Krleža, Kulundžić, etc. She also translated some German and French plays into Croatian.
Ignjat (Ignacij) Borštnik (1858-1919) was a Croatian and Slovene actor. He scripted the first and very ambitious project of the new Yugoslavia, Brišem i sudim/B. and the Judges (Arnošt Grund, 1917), a grandiose, poetic melodrama. Borštnik interpreted the main role in the film as well. Tošo Lesić and Ivo Badalić, who also played in Dama sa crnom krinkom, acted in Brišem i sudim/B. and the judge as well. Tošo Lesić aka Teodor Lesić (1866-1949) was a Croatian actor.
Ivo Badalić (1890-1937) was a Croatian actor and director. He was a member of the Zagreb Drama Theatre, then worked in Split and Osijek. He participated in the first Croatian feature films, such as Brišem i sudim/B. and the Judges (Arnošt Grund, 1917), Matija Gubec (Aleksandar-Aca Binicki, 1917) and Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918). In the theatre, he made significant acting achievements in plays by William Shakespeare and Miroslav Krleža.
NB. Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) was distributed by Jugoslavija Film in 1919, that's why IMDb lists it as a production from 1919.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 4. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Milica Mihicic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 5. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Gina Klitsch, Ignat Borstnik and Toso Lesic.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 6. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Gina Klitsch and Toso Lesic.
Sources: Biographien.ac.at, Wikipedia and IMDb.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 1. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Ivo Badallic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 2. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Ivo Badallic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 3. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Milica Mihicic.
A mundane melodrama unable to veil its technical shortcomings
Domestic film production in Croatia started during the First World War. In 1917, Hamilkar Bošković and Julien Bergmann founded the first Croatian film company, Croatia. They engaged Croatian actors and directors and Austrian technicians. At the end of 1918 Bošković and Bergmann sold their rights to the new company Hermes or New Croatia, which was active until 1920.
About their production Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918), former film historian Peter Volk wrote that only photos and some notes were left. However, he condemned the film as pretending to display a mundane melodrama but not being able to veil its technical shortcomings. Therefore, Sreten Jovanovic, in his 1976 text Metodoloski pristup istoriji jugoslovenske kinematografije sa posebnim osvrtom na kinematografiju u Zagrebu 1917-1923, is rather critical of Volk's judgements. The film itself is still lost, so we cannot check the qualities for ourselves.
In 1917 a stage play came out at the London Haymarket theatre, called The Lady in the Black Mask, by Tom Gallon, whose last work this was before he died. Perhaps the film was based on it. The play begins in a theatre with the heroine, Ruth, watching a play. Arriving home from the theatre, Damia, the girl whose companion she is, pleads fatigue and persuades her to go out again to a masked ball, wearing the dress and indeed assuming the personality of her mistress. The two girls live in a gloomy house with old Mr. Verinder, who is Damia's guardian. But when Ruth returns from the ball, Verinder has been stabbed during Ruth's absence. As no one knows, or would ever believe, that it was Damia and not herself who had remained at home, Ruth is in a pretty bad situation. Moreover, it is not sure whether Damia really killed Verinder...
Little is known about director Robert Staerk. After Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask, he returned to the film sets after a gap of a decade, to act instead of direct. Between 1928 and 1932 he acted in three German films.
Very little is also known about the actress Gina Klitsch, who played the lead in the film. She is named Tina Klitsch on IMDb, and it would have been her only film. However, there was an Austrian actress Gina Puch-Klitsch. She was the sister of Austrian film star Olaf Fjord, originally Ämilian Maximilian Pouch. Puch-Klitsch played in three Austrian films in 1920, produced by her brother's company Fjord-Film, and starring himself. In 1922 she was Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) in Ludwig II (Otto Kreisler, 1922), opposite her brother in the title role. In 1930 she had a major part opposite Oscar Marion and Attila Hörbiger in the Austrian film Die Tat des Andreas Harmer/The act of Andreas Harmer (Alfred Deutsch, 1930).
Milica Mihicic (1864–1950) was a Croatian actress known for her early part in Dama sa crnom krinkom (1918). As a pupil of the Croatian actor and director Mandrović, Mihicic debuted in 1890 at the Croatian National Theatre. She was accepted and worked over 50 years on this stage. She acted often in plays by such French authors as Ohnet, Bourdet, etc., whose characterts she was able to enliven with fine irony. She also appeared in the realistic and psychological plays by Tolstoy, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Pirandello etc. Mihicic was an important supporter of local plays by Vojnović, Begović (sd.), Krleža, Kulundžić, etc. She also translated some German and French plays into Croatian.
Ignjat (Ignacij) Borštnik (1858-1919) was a Croatian and Slovene actor. He scripted the first and very ambitious project of the new Yugoslavia, Brišem i sudim/B. and the Judges (Arnošt Grund, 1917), a grandiose, poetic melodrama. Borštnik interpreted the main role in the film as well. Tošo Lesić and Ivo Badalić, who also played in Dama sa crnom krinkom, acted in Brišem i sudim/B. and the judge as well. Tošo Lesić aka Teodor Lesić (1866-1949) was a Croatian actor.
Ivo Badalić (1890-1937) was a Croatian actor and director. He was a member of the Zagreb Drama Theatre, then worked in Split and Osijek. He participated in the first Croatian feature films, such as Brišem i sudim/B. and the Judges (Arnošt Grund, 1917), Matija Gubec (Aleksandar-Aca Binicki, 1917) and Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918). In the theatre, he made significant acting achievements in plays by William Shakespeare and Miroslav Krleža.
NB. Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) was distributed by Jugoslavija Film in 1919, that's why IMDb lists it as a production from 1919.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 4. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Milica Mihicic and Gina Klitsch.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 5. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Gina Klitsch, Ignat Borstnik and Toso Lesic.
Yugoslavian postcard by Jugoslavija Film, Zagreb, no. 6. Photo: Croatia Film. Publicity still for Dama sa crnom krinkom/The Lady in the Black Mask (Robert Staerk, 1918) with Gina Klitsch and Toso Lesic.
Sources: Biographien.ac.at, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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