French postcard by Ed. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gaudin in Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913), adapted from the famous novel by Victor Hugo. Caption: La mort de Gavroche (The Death of Gavroche).
During the June Revolution of 1832, young Gavroche (Gaudin), the son of the Thenardier couple, is killed while collecting bullets from deceased soldiers. On this card, he is shown as a revolutionary hero. This card is part of a booklet made by Le Deley with multiple portraits of the main actors and various scenes of the film. Ivo: "Very special is the book of cards from Les Misérables, the 1913 version. I already had one card from the series (Henri Krauss as Jean Valjean), but now we have an almost complete set of portraits and scenes. I watched a rather blurred version of the film on YouTube. In it, you can see quite well how good Krauss was as an actor, his restrained, strong acting. I also scanned a card with Etievant as Javert, but it was half out of focus, so I dropped it. So I selected the card of Gavroche at the barricades. We'll scan the whole series later and make a separate post for EFSP.
French postcard by Alterocca, no. 3916. Photo: Cinématograph Pathé. Scene from the early French film Guillaume Tell (Lucien Nonguet, 1903). Caption: Gessler furieux ordonne qui [que] Tell soit arrêté sur le champ (Infuriated, Gessler commands to arrest Tell on the spot).
Ivo: "This is the oldest card in my selection. I bought two additional cards from Guillaume Tell (1903) by Alterocca. We already had a few cards by Croissant and by Alterocca for the film. I am very happy with this addition. I selected one card for this post; the second will follow later.
French postcard for the Alhambra Cinéma Pathé Frères, St.-Etienne. Photo: Pathé Frères. Scene from the early French film Le bagne des gosses / Children's Reformatory (Charles Decroix, 1907).
Ivo: "I'm also happy with this card of Le bagne des gosses / Children's Reformatory (1907), a film I once catalogued in Overveen when I worked at Eye Filmmuseum's film archive. The film is reminiscent of Les Misérables: imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread, but the escape from juvenile prison is also reminiscent of Truffaut's Les 400 coups, one of my favourite films. The postcard is from a series we already have many of, but this one is for a different cinema, the Alhambra in St Etienne. You can watch the full film, a tinted version with Dutch intertitles and English subtitles on YouTube."
British postcard by J.F. Grimm & Co.. Photo: Le Film d'Art. Scene from the French silent film Les trois mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (André Calmettes, Henri Pouctal, 1913). Caption: Retribution. The executioner holds up the severed head of Milady. We see the three musketeers (Marcel Vibert, Adolphe Candé, Stellio) and D'Artagnan (Émile Dehelly) in the boat. Jean Duval played the executioner, and Nelly Cormon played Milady De Winter.
Ivo: "We already had French cards from Les trois mousquetaires (1913), but now a British card by J.F. Grimm & Co. has been added. Although several sources, including Wikipedia, write that the film was released in 1912, this is untrue. The film was first shown to Paris cinema owners and buyers in October 1913, before the film's general release. See also our French card for this scene at Flickr."
British postcard by J.F. Grimm & Co., London. Photo: Pasquali. Alberto Capozzi, Umberto Paradisi and Enrico Vidali in I due sergenti / The Two Sergeants (Eugenio Perego, 1913). Caption: Tried on a capital charge: The two Serjeants [Sergeants] before the court martial.
Ivo: "We had a British card by J.F. Grimm & co. of the Italian silent film I due sergenti (Eugenio Perego, 1913), but now a second postcard has been added." The plot is about a Captain Derville (Capozzi) who is unjustly accused of theft and has to leave his wife and children and disguise himself as a peasant named William. Because of his bravery during the Napoleonic wars, he was appointed sergeant. He bonds with Sergeant Robert (Paradisi), but the jealous aide-de-camp Valmore (Giovanni Enrico Vidali), in love with Robert's fiancée Laura, plots to have both sergeants killed. When the two men transgress a quarantine in a time of plague, they are court-martialled, and William has to die. William begs to say goodbye once more to his wife and children. Robert sacrifices himself to die instead of he doesn't return; Valmore doesn't mind this proposal. The evil Valmore even plots to delay William's return, but in the nick of time, William returns, Robert is saved, and the evil plotter is unmasked and condemned himself.
French postcard for the French silent film Gigolette (Henri Pouctal, 1921), with Séphora Mossé, Andrée Lionel, Camille Bert and Charles de Rochefort.
Ivo: "The card is too blurred to identify the actors. The man could be Charles de Rochefort or Camille Bert. I can't place the scene either, the film was based on the eponymous novel by Pierre Decourcelle, which depicts prostitution in the city."
French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinema. Scene from L'Empereur des pauvres / The Emperor of the Poor (René Leprince, 1922), an adaptation of the novel by Felicien Champsaur, starring Léon Mathot, Gina Relly and Henry Krauss. The man down right on this card could be Mathot.
Ivo: "The card depicts a scene from the French silent film serial L'empereur des pauvres (1921). I also found three cards with portraits that we didn't have yet. We will use these for a re-issue post on the film later."
French postcard. Image: Vitagraph. Poster for the French silent film Martyre (Charles Burguet, 1927), with Charles Vanel, Suzanne Delvé, Desdemona Mazza, Suzy Vernon, Camille Bardou, Georges Flateau and Maxime Desjardins.
Ivo: "I found this poster card of Le Martyre (1927), strangely enough, with the word Vitagraph on it. Presumably, Vitagraph was the distributor of this French film. Director Charles Burguet made the last films with Suzanne Grandais. He was also in the car in which Grandais crashed."
French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 141. Photo: Studio Lorelle.
Ivo: "At least three of the next four cards are from JRPR: a sexy card of Rachel Devirys, François Rozet in Madame Recamier (a film with Marie Bell in the title role), Edith Jéhanne in Tarakanova (we also have a portrait with her in that film), and a portrait of Cecyl Tryan (the card's publisher is unknown, but the style is reminiscent of JRPR)." Rachel Devirys (1890-1983), born Rachel Itzkovitz in the Russian Empire, was a Franco-Russian actress. She started in French cinema from 1917 and is known for such films as Visages d'enfants (Jacques Feyder, 1923) with Jean Forest, Monte Carlo (Louis Mercanton, 1925) with Betty Balfour, Le berceau de dieu (Fred Leroy-Granville, 1926), and Croquette (Mercanton, 1928) again with Balfour. Devirys continued well into the sound era, with films such as Maternité (Jean Benoît-Lévy, 1930). One of her last parts was in Les enfants terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1950).
French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 95. François Rozet as the Prince of Prussia in Madame Récamier (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1928), starring Marie Bell and Emile Drain.
François Rozet (1899-1994) was a French stage and screen actor. He refused a contract with Paramount when he was in the US touring with a troupe of the Odeon. However, Rozet had an important career in French cinema, starting as Marius in Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925). His other major parts were in La Cousine Bette (Max de Rieux, 1927), La Glu (Henri Fescourt, 1927), Madame Récamier (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1928), Minuit, place Pigalle (René Hervil, 1928), and Monte Cristo (Henri Fescourt, 1929). Rozet also played in the first French talking film, Les Trois Masques (André Hugon, 1929), about a rich man (Jean Toulout) whose son (Rozet) has made a poor woman (Renée Heribel) pregnant.
French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 418. Édith Jéhanne in Tarakanova (Raymond Bernard, 1930). Photo: R. Tomarig, Nice.
Ivo: "Edith Jéhanne starred in the late silent film Tarakanova (1930) with Olaf Fjord. She played a female impostor who claims to be heir to the Russian throne. When the czarina (Paule Andral) sends her best aide (Fjord) to capture the girl, he falls in love with her. It was Raymond Bernard's last silent film, shot in 1929, but held back to be sonorised in 1930. Bernard considered it his best film, but no copy of the film ever showed up, so we can not judge for ourselves."
French postcard.
Ivo: "Franco-Italian actress Cecyl Tryan (1897-?) had a prolific career in the Italian silent cinema, from 1913 until the late 1920s. She first starred at Cines, later also at companies like Gladiator Film and Fert."
French postcard in the Series Nos artistes dans leur loge by Comoedia, no. 236. Yvonne Ducos (1887-1946) was a French stage actress who also acted in four films. The open window may be at the Comédie Française.
Ivo: "These four cards from Comoedia include three in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge and one from the series Nos artistes dans leurs expressions. According to Jean Ritsema, these are all continuous series, with increasing numbers. Yvette Ducos in front of, I think, an open window overlooking the square of the Comédie française, Lucienne Debrenne (her name is written wrong on the card; beautiful wallpaper on the wall) and the famous comedian Polin (admittedly elderly here). Number four is the comedian Urban, presumably in the operetta 'Phi-Phi', about the Greek sculptor Phidias."
French postcard in the Series Nos artistes dans leur loge by Comoedia, no. 177. Lucienne Debrenne (without -s) was a French stage actress who acted, e.g. in the comedy 'La Fleur d’oranger', performed in 1924 at the Comédie-Caumartin (Paris). The leading actors were Gabriel Signoret, Mady Berry, Germaine Risse and Pierre Etchepare.
French postcard in the Series Nos artistes dans leur loge by Comoedia, no. 310. French comedian Polin (1863-1927) was one of the greatest stars of the café-concerts of Paris. His interpretations were sober and had nuance and finesse, which were rare in the café-concerts. From 1910 on, he also appeared in film and theatre, including Sacha Guitry's play 'Le Grand Duc' (The Grand Duke, 1921) with Lucien and Sacha Guitry, and Yvonne Printemps.
French postcard in the Series Nos Artistes Dans Leurs Expressions by Comoedia, no. 1021. Urban is dressed in his outfit from the operetta 'Phi-Phi' (1918).
French postcard. We are not 100% sure this really is the French actress Sylvie, although she wore slightly similar attire when she acted in the stage play 'Vieil Heidelberg' around 1900.
Ivo: "The final cards are a bit of everything: a card of Sylvie (who doesn't look very much like the real Sylvie); Madeleine Roch in the play 'Les Burgraves' (1910); Alexander Moissi in 'Jedermann' (we already had a similar card); Boucot in the early sound film Arthur (1931; we already posted another card for the same film); and the card of Paul Swann, dancer, painter, “the most beautiful man in the world”, and a little bit actor too (we already posted a scan of a card from the collection of Didier Hanson but now I have it myself)."
French postcard. Madeleine Roch (Comédie Française) as Guanhhumara in the stage play 'Les Burgraves' by Victor Hugo, performed on 3 July 1910, in Nissan.
Austrian postcard by Traub, Salzburg. Photo: Ernst Maier (Atelier K. Hintner). Alexander Moissi as Jedermann in the stage production 'Jedermann' (Everyman) at the Salzburger Festspiele, performed before the Salzburg Dom (cathedral). Max Reinhardt directed Moissi in this production in 1919 and 1920, and from 1926 till 1931. Caption: Everyman in front of the cathedral.
Belgian postcard by Ern. Thill, Bruxelles (Nels). Photo: R. Tomarif (?), Nice / Les Films Osso. Boucot in Arthur (Léonce Perret, made in 1930, released in 1931), shown at La Scala, and based on the operetta by Barde & Christiné. Louis-Jacques Boucot, aka Boucot (1882-1949), was a French stage and screen actor, famous for his comic characters of Pénard and Babylas.
French postcard by Dix, Paris. Paul Swan (1883-1972) was an American dancer, painter, sculptor, poet and actor. A journalist once described him as "the most beautiful man in the world".
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