Trude Marlen

Trude Marlen (1912-2005), was a curly-locked Austrian leading lady of the 1930s. From 1933 until the 1940s, she made mostly light entertainment films as a Ufa star, in which Willi Forst was often her partner. The Ufa traded her as the German answer to Jean Harlow, but for the most part, she was rather the Viennese equivalent of the 'girl next door', engaging and uncomplicated.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6760/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg. Trude Marlen in Spiel mit dem Feuer/Playing with Fire (Ralph Arthur Roberts, 1934).


German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie by Ross Verlag, series 2, no. 255 of 300. Photo: Europa. The card was a supplement with 'Edelzigarette Kurmark'.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8239/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa. Trude Marlen in Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe/A Prince's Young Love (Arthur Robison, 1933).

The German answer to Jean Harlow

Trude Marlen was born as Gertrude 'Trude' Marlen Posch in 1912 in Graz, Austria. She was the daughter of an Austrian landowner. Together with her twin sister Cecilia and her sister Grete she grew up in her native city Graz. There she also received private acting lessons from Lori Weiser. This was followed by stage engagements in Brno, Berlin and Vienna.

Trude Marlen, as she then called herself, became a busy actress at the theatre, as well as on the screen. In 1933 she made her feature film debut in the romantic comedy Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe/A Prince's Young Love (Arthur Robison, 1933) starring Willy Fritsch. She quickly made a career for herself and often played the 'sweet Viennese girl', e.g. with Paul Hörbiger in the comedy Spiel mit dem Feuer/Playing with Fire (Ralph Arthur Roberts, 1934) and in Schabernack/A Hoax (E.W. Emo, 1936).

In Berlin, she was traded as the "German answer to Jean Harlow". Georg Jacoby cast her as the waitress Hanni, who turned men's heads in the film Ehestreik/Marriage Strike (Georg Jacoby, 1935). As Lotte Bach in the amusing story Der verkannte Lebemann/The Unrecognized Man of the World (Carl Boese, 1936), she ensnared a writer and supposed womaniser (Ralph Arthur Roberts). In Der Favorit der Kaiserin/The Empress's Favourite (Werner Hochbaum, 1936) she played the scheming court lady Comtesse Irena who falls in love with a guard officer (Willi Eichberger a.k.a. Carl Esmond) at the court of the Russian Tsarina Elisabeth (Olga Tschechowa).

One of her best roles was in the successful comedy Paradies der Junggesellen/Bachelors' Paradise (Kurt Hoffmann, 1939) with Heinz Rühmann. The twice-divorced Rühmann, who has temporarily become a misogynist, falls in love with his landlady Frau Platen (Trude Marlen), while his flatmates and friends Dr. Balduin Hannemann (Hans Brausewetter) and the pharmacist Caesar Spreckelsen (Josef Sieber) end up marrying his two ex-wives (Gerda Maria Terno and Hilde Schneider).

Marlen had another nice role in the exciting thriller Ich bin Sebastian Ott/I Am Sebastian Ott (Willi Forst, Viktor Becker, 1939), as the fiancée Erika of an art expert (Willi Forst) who is held responsible for his brother's frauds. Forst co-directed and played a double role. Marlen and Forst again worked together in Operette/Operetta (Willi Forst, 1940).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8981/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9484/1, 1935-1936. Photo: IF (Itala Film). Trude Marlen in the German historical comedy Der Favorit der Kaiserin/The Empress's Favourite (Werner Hochbaum, 1936).

Member of the Albach-Retty acting dynasty

From 1941 to 1945, Trude Marlen belonged to the ensemble of the renowned Burgtheater in Vienna. She only appeared in a few films such as Fahrt ins Abenteuer/Trip Into Adventure (Jürgen von Alten, 1943) with Winnie Markus and Die beiden Schwestern/The Two Sisters (Erich Waschneck, 1943) starring Gisela Uhlen and Marina von Ditmar.

From 1943 she lived with the actor Wolf Albach-Retty, father of Romy Schneider. After his divorce from his first wife Magda Schneider, he married Trude Marlen in 1947. Like all family members of the Albach-Retty acting dynasty living at the time, she, the second wife of early SS patron and NSDAP member Wolf Albach-Retty, was an enthusiastic supporter of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.

After the end of the Second World War, she mainly acted in theatre. For example, she was one of the founding members of the Kleine Komödie in Vienna, where she worked extensively in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, she gave numerous guest performances with touring companies. In Austrian films, she appeared only sporadically. She acted in the comedy Wer küßt wen?/Who Kisses Whom? (1947) and could be seen in Leckerbissen/Gems (Werner Malbran, 1948), a rather unambitious potpourri of eighteen formerly popular cinema productions in random order.

She continued playing in films well into her old age. In 2001 she starred alongside Leon Askin in Ene mene muh - und tot bist du/Eeny, meeny, miny, moe - and you're dead (Houchang Allahyaris, 2001). It was to be the last film appearance for both old stars. On television, she was only seen a few times, such as in a supporting role in an episode of the Krimi series Tatort (1996).

Trude Marlen died in 2005 at the age of 92. Like her twin sister, the actress Cecilia Maximiliane Brantley, who had died in 1997, she was buried next to her husband Wolf Albach-Retty in the grave of honour of her mother-in-law Rosa Albach-Retty at the Vienna Central Cemetery.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3169/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wien-Film / Tobis. Trude Marlen in Operette/Operetta (Willi Forst, Karl Hartl, 1940).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3426/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Wien-Film / Hämmerer.

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 14 June 2023.