Quo vadis? (1924)

Last week, we enjoyed at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Quo vadis? (1913), based on the classic novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. One of the most spectacular films of European silent cinema was a later silent version, Quo vadis? (1924). The producer was grand old man Arturo Ambrosio, and his production company, the Unione Cinematografica Italiana (UCI), was a Ufa-like or Universal-like merger of many Italian pre-war film companies. The directors were the German Georg Jacoby and the Italian Gabriellino D' Annunzio, son of Gabriele D'Annunzio, the famous Italian writer and adventurer. The sets for this German-Italian coproduction were designed by R. Ferro and G. Spilani. A lot of publicity material was produced for the film, including several series of postcards, as we showed in an earlier post on Quo vadis? (1924) from 2023. This post contains the most beautiful postcard series published by the Turinese Editions di lusso L'Argentografica.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3040. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924) starring Emil Jannings as Nero and Elena Sangro as Poppea.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3041. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924) starring Alphons Fryland as Vinicius.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3042. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3043. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3044. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3046. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). The lions in the arena.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3047. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Gildo Bocci as Vitellius at Nero's orgy.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3048. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Ursus and Licia/Lygia in prison.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3049. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924) starring Alphons Fryland as Vinicius and Lilian Hall-Davis as Licia.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3050. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924), starring Emil Jannings as Nero and Lilian Hall-Davis as Licia. Nero menaces Licia, after having 'saved her from the clutches of Vinicius'.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3051. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Roman cavalry in the arena.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3052. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Nero's Palace. The man in the litter in the foreground is André Habay, who plays Petronius.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3053. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924) with Elena Sangro. Sent by mail in Italy in 1926.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3054. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3055. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Alfons Fryland as Vinicius and Lilian Hall-Davis as Licia/Lygia at Nero's banquet.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3056. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Ursus (Bruto Castellani) has killed the gladiator Croton, who instead had been paid to kill Ursus, to abduct Lygia again. The traitor Chilo (Gino Viotti) watches on.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3057. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Nero's human torches in his gardens.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3058. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). The Abduction of Licia/Lygia.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3059. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). After Licia's/ Lygia's abduction. From 1909 on, the same litter was constantly used in Roman Antiquity films at Cines, including the 1913 Quo vadis?.


Italian postcard by Edizione L'Argentografica, Torino, no. 3060. Publicity still for the Italo-German epic Quo Vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio & Georg Jacoby, 1924), starring Emil Jannings as Nero.


Italian postcard by Ed. L'Argentografica, Turin, no. 3063. Photo: Unione Cinematografia Italiana (UCI). Scene from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Christ has fallen under the Cross, the veil of Veronica.


Italian postcard by Prosdocimi, Roma. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Caption: Construction for the film Quo vadis?. Actually, this was an already existing construction for the so-called Mostra del Lazio (1923), designed by Armando Brasini, and reused as Nero's palace in Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Card mailed in December 1930.