During the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, Rizzoli in Milan was one of the most prominent publishers of film star postcards in Italy. Director was Angelo Rizzoli, who also was a film producer. Through the years, Ivo Blom collected many of the Rizzoli cards with their glamorous portraits and remarkable colours. Ivo is not only interested in the cards because of their beauty, but also because they illustrate the story of the Italian film industry between 1936 and 1943 in an original way. In a series of posts, Ivo chooses his favourite Rizzoli cards and describes what happed in Italy in this turbulent period.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Fox - 20th Century.
American actress Gloria Stuart (1910-2010) was initially known for her roles in Pre-Code films, including James Whale's horror films The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Later in life, she would garner renewed fame for her portrayal of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's Titanic (1997). In 1935, she had success with Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935 and the following year, she co-starred with Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO).
American actress and singer Irene Dunne (1898-1990) was a top Hollywood star between the 1930s and the early 1950s. During her career, she got five Oscar nominations but never won one. In 1936, Dunne was the star of the musical Show Boat (James Whale, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Fox - 20th Century.
Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) was an American film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence. By 1944 Stanwyck had become the highest-paid woman in the United States. She was a favourite of her directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Wallace Beery in Westpoint of the Air (Richard Rosson, 1935).
American actor Wallace Beery (1885-1949) is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films in a 36-year career. He and Barbara Stanwyck co-starred in 1936 in A Message to Garcia (George Marshall, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Petite Janet Gaynor (1906-1984) was the innocent-eyed, round-faced Hollywood star who won the first Academy Award for best actress for her roles in three silent films. She went on to become a popular leading lady in talking pictures. By 1934 she was receiving a yearly salary of $252,583 from Fox, making her Hollywood's most highly paid actress. Her films in these years include Change of Heart (John G. Blystone, 1934), The Farmer Takes a Wife (Victor Fleming, 1935), and Small Town Girl (William A. Wellman, 1936).
In the 1920s and 1930s two Milanese editorial companies, Rizzoli and Mondadori, took the lead in founding a series of women magazines, using the new technique of the rotogravure.
In particular, Rizzoli made its mark with illustrated magazines such as Novella, afterward taken over by Mondadori, and becoming one of the leading women’s magazines.
To Rizzoli’s new magazines were added Cinema Illustrazione (with later merged with Cinema Illustrato), Lei (which became Annabella in 1938), Omnibus, and Oggi. In the 1930s Rizzoli also took over another important film magazine, Cine-Romanzo (founded in 1929).
Cine-Romanzo and Cine-Illustrazione had a strong focus on Hollywood and the life of the stars, both on the set and in private life.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) was a French actor, singer, and entertainer. His trademark was a casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage with a cane and a tuxedo. In 1934, he appeared in the MGM musical The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934) opposite Jeanette MacDonald. The two repeated their roles in the French version, La Veuve joyeuse (Ernst Lubitsch, 1935). For other studios, he appeared in the multi-language films Folies Bergère de Paris/L'homme des Folies Bergère (Roy Del Ruth, Marcel Achard, 1935), and The Beloved Vagabond/Le vagabond bien-aimé (Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Red-headed and blue-green eyed operatic singer Jeanette MacDonald (1903-1965) was discovered for the cinema by Ernst Lubitsch, who cast her opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade (1929) and later in The Merry Widow (1934). 'The Iron Butterfly' also co-starred with Nelson Eddy in a string of successful musicals including Naughty Marietta (W.S. Van Dyke, 1935) and Rose-Marie (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936). And she played opposite Clark Gable in San Francisco (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actress Norma Shearer (1902-1983) was the 'First Lady of MGM'. She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. Her first talkie was The Trial of Mary Dugan (Bayard Veiller, 1929). Four films later, she won an Oscar for The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard, 1930). In 1936 Shearer starred opposite Leslie Howard in Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936), for which she got her fifth Oscar nomination.
Italian postcard. Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1940. London Films.
Indian-born British actress Merle Oberon (1911-1979) had her breakthrough as Anna Boleyn in Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She played leading roles in such British films as The Scarlet Pimpernel (Alexander Korda, 1934), before she travelled to Hollywood to star in classics as The Dark Angel (Sidney Franklin, 1935) and Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939). Oberon also starred in 1936 in These Three (William Wyler, 1936) and Beloved Enemy (H.C. Potter, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Universal.
Hungarian-born singer and actress Márta Eggerth (1912-2013) maintained a global career for over 70 years. She was the popular and talented star of 30 German and Austrian operetta films of the 1930s. Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her. In 1936, Eggerth starred in Das Hofkonzert/The Court Concert (Detlef Sierck a.k.a. Douglas Sirk, 1936). Later, she continued her career with her partner Jan Kiepura in the US.
In the 1930s Hollywood reigned on the Italian screens, despite the revival of the Italian film industry in the early 1930s. The industry revived thanks to private initiative, mainly by producer Stefano Pittaluga, who revived the old Cines in 1930 and equipped it for sound cinema.
Gradually the Italian State stimulated the film industry as well, inspired by Hollywood and Germany. The Venice film festival was founded in 1932 (the oldest European film festival). In 1935, the new film school Centro Sperimentale was founded, the first film academy of Western Europe.
A separate section on film was founded at the Ministry of Press and Propaganda, stimulating national production but also strictly controlling the output by severe censorship of scripts and films. In Italy, there was state censorship instead of the auto-censorship of the major studios in the US under the Production Code.
Yet, the old Cines studio burned down in 1935, creating a big gap in film production. This was partly filled up by a film studio outside of Rome, between Pisa and Livorno, the so-called Pisorno Studios at Tirrenia, near the Tuscan coast. This complex was built 1933-1934 as a competitor to the Cines, supported by the fascist state.
In the mid-1930s, the Pisorno studios reigned, but after the opening of Cinecittà Studios in Rome (1937), also backed by the regime, and the founding of the Roman company Scalera (1938), they got fierce competition.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Joan Blondell (1906–1979) performed in more than 100 films and on television for five decades, often as the wisecracking blonde. Examples of her films are Dames (Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley, 1934), Bullets or Ballots (William Keighley, 1936) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (Lloyd Bacon, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Columbia EIA.
American actress Ann Sothern (1909-2001) had a career on stage, radio, film, and television, that spanned nearly six decades. For Columbia, she starred in such films as the mystery Grand Exit (Erle C. Kenton, 1935), and the crime drama You May Be Next! (Albert S. Rogell, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
María Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of the Italian cinema under the Fascist rule. Very successful were her Telefoni Bianchi-films of the 1930s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial are her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti. In 1936, Denis appeared in Joe il rosso/Joe the Red (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milan, 1936-XV.
Paola Barbara (1912-1989) was an Italian actress who acted in over 60 films but also worked on stage and for television. She is best known for the film La peccatrice (Amleto Palermi, 1940). Barbara started her film career in films such as Campo di maggio/100 Days of Napoleon (Giovacchino Forzano, 1936)
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936.
Elisa Cegani (1911–1996) was one of the most representative actresses of Italian cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. Cegani co-starred with Amedeo Nazzari in Cavalleria/Cavalry (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1936).
1936 was a crucial year: the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Olympic Games took place in Germany: in Garmisch-Partenkirchen during the winter and in Berlin during the summer, countries started building up their navies, and Hitler occupied the Rhine territories.
Italy conquered Abyssinia and crowned the king to Emperor of Ethiopia, the German-Italian pact was signed, and Fiat launched its first 500 ‘Topolino’ car. And the Venice Film Festival used for the first time an International Jury, while the prestige of the event was consolidated with the presence of many important guests.
In Venice were such directors as Frank Capra who presented Mr. Deeds Goes to Town/È arrivata la felicità with Gary Cooper and John Ford who presented Mary of Scotland/Maria di Scozia with Katharine Hepburn, but also Max Ophüls with La tendre ennemie/La nostra compagna, René Clair with The Ghost Goes West/Il fantasma galante with Robert Donat and Jean Parker, Josef von Sternberg with The King Steps Out/Desiderio di re, and Marcel L'Herbier with Veille d’armes/Sacrifice of Honor with Annabella.
The greatest public success, however, was the result of the Italian star Amedeo Nazzari. The Mussolini Cup for the best Italian film was awarded to Augusto Genina's Lo squadrone bianco/The White Squadron, starring Nazzari. The cup for the best foreign film would see the triumph of Der Kaiser von Kalifornien by and with the Süd-Tirolian actor Luis Trenker.
The best actors of this edition were Paul Muni, awarded for The Life of Doctor Pasteur, and Annabella, the protagonist of Veille d’armes. That same year in Hollywood, the Oscars went to The Great Ziegfeld, Frank Capra, Paul Muni, and Luise Rainer, the star of The Great Ziegfeld.
Italian postcard by Ed. Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
Assia Noris (1912-1998) is best remembered as the female star of the 1930s romantic comedies by Mario Camerini. Noris had in 1935 success with Darò un milione/I'll Give a Million (Mario Camerini, 1935), and two years later again with Il signor Max/Mister Max (Mario Camerini, 1937). In both comedies, she co-starred with Vittorio De Sica.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
Silvana Jachino (1916-2004) was an Italian stage and film actress, who was successful and popular in the 1930s and 1940s. She started her career in 1936 in such films as Cavalleria/Cavalry (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli S.C., Milano, 1936.
Italian director Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) is well-known as a leading figure in the postwar Neorealist movement. De Sica directed 34 feature films, for which he won numerous international prizes including four Oscars. As an actor, he made more than 150 films and is best known for his bright and charming roles in earthy comedies opposite sex goddesses Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. In the 1930s De Sica started in film as a popular matinee idol, after a career in music-hall and on the radio.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & Co, Milano, 1936.
Elsa Merlini (1903-1983) was a star of the Italian cinema of the 1930s. She excelled in the so-called 'telefoni bianchi' (white telephone comedies). With Vittorio de Sica, she co-starred in 1936 in the musical comedy Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (Nunzio Malasomma, Mario Bonnard, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936.
Little known Hilda Springher (1909-1978) was an actress who played in six Italian sound films from the 1930s, within the genre of the 'Telefoni Bianchi' comedies. She did also vaudeville with Macario, Dapporto, and Wanda Osiris.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
American film actress Rochelle Hudson (1916–1972) appeared in Hollywood films from the early 1930s through the 1960s. Her roles went from ingenue to leading lady to character actress. She is best remembered for co-starring in the tense and gripping social drama Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables (Richard Boleslawski, 1935), as the older sister of Shirley Temple in Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935), and as Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955).
To be continued.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Fox - 20th Century.
American actress Gloria Stuart (1910-2010) was initially known for her roles in Pre-Code films, including James Whale's horror films The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Later in life, she would garner renewed fame for her portrayal of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's Titanic (1997). In 1935, she had success with Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935 and the following year, she co-starred with Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (Irving Cummings, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO).
American actress and singer Irene Dunne (1898-1990) was a top Hollywood star between the 1930s and the early 1950s. During her career, she got five Oscar nominations but never won one. In 1936, Dunne was the star of the musical Show Boat (James Whale, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Fox - 20th Century.
Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) was an American film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence. By 1944 Stanwyck had become the highest-paid woman in the United States. She was a favourite of her directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Wallace Beery in Westpoint of the Air (Richard Rosson, 1935).
American actor Wallace Beery (1885-1949) is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films in a 36-year career. He and Barbara Stanwyck co-starred in 1936 in A Message to Garcia (George Marshall, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Petite Janet Gaynor (1906-1984) was the innocent-eyed, round-faced Hollywood star who won the first Academy Award for best actress for her roles in three silent films. She went on to become a popular leading lady in talking pictures. By 1934 she was receiving a yearly salary of $252,583 from Fox, making her Hollywood's most highly paid actress. Her films in these years include Change of Heart (John G. Blystone, 1934), The Farmer Takes a Wife (Victor Fleming, 1935), and Small Town Girl (William A. Wellman, 1936).
The publishers
In the 1920s and 1930s two Milanese editorial companies, Rizzoli and Mondadori, took the lead in founding a series of women magazines, using the new technique of the rotogravure.
In particular, Rizzoli made its mark with illustrated magazines such as Novella, afterward taken over by Mondadori, and becoming one of the leading women’s magazines.
To Rizzoli’s new magazines were added Cinema Illustrazione (with later merged with Cinema Illustrato), Lei (which became Annabella in 1938), Omnibus, and Oggi. In the 1930s Rizzoli also took over another important film magazine, Cine-Romanzo (founded in 1929).
Cine-Romanzo and Cine-Illustrazione had a strong focus on Hollywood and the life of the stars, both on the set and in private life.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) was a French actor, singer, and entertainer. His trademark was a casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage with a cane and a tuxedo. In 1934, he appeared in the MGM musical The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934) opposite Jeanette MacDonald. The two repeated their roles in the French version, La Veuve joyeuse (Ernst Lubitsch, 1935). For other studios, he appeared in the multi-language films Folies Bergère de Paris/L'homme des Folies Bergère (Roy Del Ruth, Marcel Achard, 1935), and The Beloved Vagabond/Le vagabond bien-aimé (Kurt (Curtis) Bernhardt, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Red-headed and blue-green eyed operatic singer Jeanette MacDonald (1903-1965) was discovered for the cinema by Ernst Lubitsch, who cast her opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade (1929) and later in The Merry Widow (1934). 'The Iron Butterfly' also co-starred with Nelson Eddy in a string of successful musicals including Naughty Marietta (W.S. Van Dyke, 1935) and Rose-Marie (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936). And she played opposite Clark Gable in San Francisco (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, 1936. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actress Norma Shearer (1902-1983) was the 'First Lady of MGM'. She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. Her first talkie was The Trial of Mary Dugan (Bayard Veiller, 1929). Four films later, she won an Oscar for The Divorcee (Robert Z. Leonard, 1930). In 1936 Shearer starred opposite Leslie Howard in Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936), for which she got her fifth Oscar nomination.
Italian postcard. Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1940. London Films.
Indian-born British actress Merle Oberon (1911-1979) had her breakthrough as Anna Boleyn in Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She played leading roles in such British films as The Scarlet Pimpernel (Alexander Korda, 1934), before she travelled to Hollywood to star in classics as The Dark Angel (Sidney Franklin, 1935) and Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939). Oberon also starred in 1936 in These Three (William Wyler, 1936) and Beloved Enemy (H.C. Potter, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Universal.
Hungarian-born singer and actress Márta Eggerth (1912-2013) maintained a global career for over 70 years. She was the popular and talented star of 30 German and Austrian operetta films of the 1930s. Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her. In 1936, Eggerth starred in Das Hofkonzert/The Court Concert (Detlef Sierck a.k.a. Douglas Sirk, 1936). Later, she continued her career with her partner Jan Kiepura in the US.
The film industry
In the 1930s Hollywood reigned on the Italian screens, despite the revival of the Italian film industry in the early 1930s. The industry revived thanks to private initiative, mainly by producer Stefano Pittaluga, who revived the old Cines in 1930 and equipped it for sound cinema.
Gradually the Italian State stimulated the film industry as well, inspired by Hollywood and Germany. The Venice film festival was founded in 1932 (the oldest European film festival). In 1935, the new film school Centro Sperimentale was founded, the first film academy of Western Europe.
A separate section on film was founded at the Ministry of Press and Propaganda, stimulating national production but also strictly controlling the output by severe censorship of scripts and films. In Italy, there was state censorship instead of the auto-censorship of the major studios in the US under the Production Code.
Yet, the old Cines studio burned down in 1935, creating a big gap in film production. This was partly filled up by a film studio outside of Rome, between Pisa and Livorno, the so-called Pisorno Studios at Tirrenia, near the Tuscan coast. This complex was built 1933-1934 as a competitor to the Cines, supported by the fascist state.
In the mid-1930s, the Pisorno studios reigned, but after the opening of Cinecittà Studios in Rome (1937), also backed by the regime, and the founding of the Roman company Scalera (1938), they got fierce competition.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Joan Blondell (1906–1979) performed in more than 100 films and on television for five decades, often as the wisecracking blonde. Examples of her films are Dames (Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley, 1934), Bullets or Ballots (William Keighley, 1936) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (Lloyd Bacon, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: Columbia EIA.
American actress Ann Sothern (1909-2001) had a career on stage, radio, film, and television, that spanned nearly six decades. For Columbia, she starred in such films as the mystery Grand Exit (Erle C. Kenton, 1935), and the crime drama You May Be Next! (Albert S. Rogell, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
María Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of the Italian cinema under the Fascist rule. Very successful were her Telefoni Bianchi-films of the 1930s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial are her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti. In 1936, Denis appeared in Joe il rosso/Joe the Red (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milan, 1936-XV.
Paola Barbara (1912-1989) was an Italian actress who acted in over 60 films but also worked on stage and for television. She is best known for the film La peccatrice (Amleto Palermi, 1940). Barbara started her film career in films such as Campo di maggio/100 Days of Napoleon (Giovacchino Forzano, 1936)
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936.
Elisa Cegani (1911–1996) was one of the most representative actresses of Italian cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. Cegani co-starred with Amedeo Nazzari in Cavalleria/Cavalry (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1936).
A crucial year
1936 was a crucial year: the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Olympic Games took place in Germany: in Garmisch-Partenkirchen during the winter and in Berlin during the summer, countries started building up their navies, and Hitler occupied the Rhine territories.
Italy conquered Abyssinia and crowned the king to Emperor of Ethiopia, the German-Italian pact was signed, and Fiat launched its first 500 ‘Topolino’ car. And the Venice Film Festival used for the first time an International Jury, while the prestige of the event was consolidated with the presence of many important guests.
In Venice were such directors as Frank Capra who presented Mr. Deeds Goes to Town/È arrivata la felicità with Gary Cooper and John Ford who presented Mary of Scotland/Maria di Scozia with Katharine Hepburn, but also Max Ophüls with La tendre ennemie/La nostra compagna, René Clair with The Ghost Goes West/Il fantasma galante with Robert Donat and Jean Parker, Josef von Sternberg with The King Steps Out/Desiderio di re, and Marcel L'Herbier with Veille d’armes/Sacrifice of Honor with Annabella.
The greatest public success, however, was the result of the Italian star Amedeo Nazzari. The Mussolini Cup for the best Italian film was awarded to Augusto Genina's Lo squadrone bianco/The White Squadron, starring Nazzari. The cup for the best foreign film would see the triumph of Der Kaiser von Kalifornien by and with the Süd-Tirolian actor Luis Trenker.
The best actors of this edition were Paul Muni, awarded for The Life of Doctor Pasteur, and Annabella, the protagonist of Veille d’armes. That same year in Hollywood, the Oscars went to The Great Ziegfeld, Frank Capra, Paul Muni, and Luise Rainer, the star of The Great Ziegfeld.
Italian postcard by Ed. Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
Assia Noris (1912-1998) is best remembered as the female star of the 1930s romantic comedies by Mario Camerini. Noris had in 1935 success with Darò un milione/I'll Give a Million (Mario Camerini, 1935), and two years later again with Il signor Max/Mister Max (Mario Camerini, 1937). In both comedies, she co-starred with Vittorio De Sica.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1936.
Silvana Jachino (1916-2004) was an Italian stage and film actress, who was successful and popular in the 1930s and 1940s. She started her career in 1936 in such films as Cavalleria/Cavalry (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli S.C., Milano, 1936.
Italian director Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) is well-known as a leading figure in the postwar Neorealist movement. De Sica directed 34 feature films, for which he won numerous international prizes including four Oscars. As an actor, he made more than 150 films and is best known for his bright and charming roles in earthy comedies opposite sex goddesses Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. In the 1930s De Sica started in film as a popular matinee idol, after a career in music-hall and on the radio.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & Co, Milano, 1936.
Elsa Merlini (1903-1983) was a star of the Italian cinema of the 1930s. She excelled in the so-called 'telefoni bianchi' (white telephone comedies). With Vittorio de Sica, she co-starred in 1936 in the musical comedy Non ti conosco più/I Don't Know You Anymore (Nunzio Malasomma, Mario Bonnard, 1936).
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936.
Little known Hilda Springher (1909-1978) was an actress who played in six Italian sound films from the 1930s, within the genre of the 'Telefoni Bianchi' comedies. She did also vaudeville with Macario, Dapporto, and Wanda Osiris.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
American film actress Rochelle Hudson (1916–1972) appeared in Hollywood films from the early 1930s through the 1960s. Her roles went from ingenue to leading lady to character actress. She is best remembered for co-starring in the tense and gripping social drama Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables (Richard Boleslawski, 1935), as the older sister of Shirley Temple in Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935), and as Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955).
To be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment