La Collectionneuse: Illa Meery

Il(l)a Meery (1908-1974 (?)) was a Hungarian-born actress who appeared in German and French late silent and early sound films. Marlene Pilaete wrote a fascinating article about her research on Ila Meery for the former French website L’Encinémathèque on 1 August 2019, which EFSP republished in two languages in 2021. The bio below, Marlene wrote for EFSP in 2019.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, no. 56. Photo: Arnal, Paris.

A huge diamond necklace around her naked breasts

Ila or Illa Meery was born as Ilona Mecsery in Kôrmend, Hungary, on 31 August 1908.

In the mid-1920s, she became a showgirl and notably worked at the Royal Theater of Budapest. Alongside another future actress, Rose Barsony, she could be spotted for example in the chorus of the operetta 'Alexandra' by Albert Szirmai in 1925.

In 1928, she won the title of “The Prettiest Show Girl of Budapest”, following a newspaper contest. She made her film debut in Germany, for the Super-Film GmbH company, in Der raub der Sabinerinnen/The Rape of the Sabine Women (Robert Land, 1928), in which she played, not surprisingly, a showgirl named Ria, and Prinzessin Olala/Art of Love (Robert Land, 1928).

For her film career, she chose the pseudonym 'Meery', which is simply the contraction of her family name 'Mecsery'. She then was the Countess de la Motte in the German-French co-production Cagliostro - Liebe und Leben eines großen Abenteurers/Cagliostro (Richard Oswald, 1929), in which she can be seen in one scene wearing a huge diamond necklace around her naked breasts.

She also had one of the leading roles in the Austrian film Das Weisse Paradies/The White Paradise (Max Neufeld, 1929). So ended her silent film career.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3638/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Schrecker, Berlin. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

An alluring young woman

Ila Meery came back on the screen by appearing in Les aventures du Roi Pausole/The Adventures of King Pausole (Alexis Granowsky, 1933). The French film industry soon took the alluring young woman under its wings.

She had an interesting part in Lac au dames/Ladies Lake (Marc Allégret, 1934), in which she again bared her bosom, and followed it with Zouzou (Marc Allégret, 1934), Pension Mimosas (Jacques Feyder, 1935) and Marius et Olive à Paris/Marius and Olive in Paris (Jean Epstein, 1935).

Credited as 'Ila Mecsery', she made her last film, Tisztelet a kivételnek/There Are Exceptions (Ákos Ráthonyi, 1936), in her native country.

In 1937, she married a British businessman, James Ole Herbert Willing, who, as a soldier, died during the Second World War, in 1941.

According to a few sources, I(l)la Meery passed away in Budapest in 1974 but, as we’ve not been able so far to view a death certificate, this date is given to you with some reservation.

Contrary to what you can often read on several websites, Il(l)a Meery is not the Russian-born countess Mara Tchernycheff Besobrasoff (1915-2010), who was married to French actor Henri Garat from 1939 to 1942 and who was condemned after the War for having collaborated with the Nazis. Once and for all, these are two different persons.


French postcard by Imprimerie A. Breger Frères, Paris. Issued for the cinema Max-Linder Pathé, 24, Boulevard Poissonière, Paris, where the film was presented 14-20 September 1934. Lac au dames/Ladies Lake (1934) was directed by Marc Allégret and starred Jean-Pierre Aumont, Rosine Dérean, Simone Simon and Michel Simon. Lac aux dames is situated at Lake Konstanz. In Germany, the film was presented as Hell in Frauensee ('Frauensee' was the title of the novel by Vicki Baum the film was based on). The actress whom Aumont is holding in his arms is Rosine Dérean.

Text: Marlene Pilaete.