Jean Bradin

The programme of the third and final day of the Dutch Silent Film Festival starts with the French film Le voile du bonheur / The Veil of Happiness (Édouard-Émile Violet, 1923). With music composed by none other than Gabriel Fauré for Georges Clemenceau's original play. It will be played by festival director Daan van den Hurk on piano, Steven Henry on clarinet and bass clarinet and Maaike Peters on cello. Le voile du bonheur tells the story of a blind Chinese poet who finds solace in his belief that the world around him is made up of goodness. But when his sight suddenly recovers, he sees his friends are false, his wife is faithless, and his young son mimics his blindness. The man makes an important decision. The cast of the film is Chinese, with one exception: the French actor Jean Bradin (1899-1969). Very few personal facts are known about him, although he was a prolific film actor from the early 1920s onward. First, he acted in French silent films and later also in German and British films, including Hitchcock's Champagne (1928) and Dupont's Moulin Rouge (1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1941/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London.

Will his wife stand by him?

Jean Bradin, a.k.a. Jean Bradier, was born in the 5th arrondissement of Paris in 1899.

He debuted as an actor in French silent cinema, in the film L'auberge / The Inn (Donatien, Édouard-Émile Violet, 1922), with the two directors also in the leading roles. He also acted in the subsequent films of the two, Les hommes nouveaux / Man and His Gods (Donatien, Édouard-Émile Violet, 1922) and Le voile du bonheur / The Veil of Happiness (Édouard-Émile Violet, 1923).

After the lead in Paul et Virginie / Paul and Virginie (Robert Peguy, 1924), Bradin played Lt. d'Artelles opposite Maurice Schutz as Commander de Corlaix in the war drama Veille d'armes / In the Night Watch (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1925). The commander's young wife (Annette Benson) has an affair with a young officer, who dies during a torpedo attack. The commander is accused of negligence, but will his wife stand by him? Bradin stayed with De Baroncelli for Le réveil / The Alarm Clock (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1925), after which he played Christ in Le berceau de dieu / The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926), starring Léon Mathot.

In 1926, Jean Bradin embarked on a career in the German silent cinema, alternating with productions in Britain. In 1926-1929, Bradin acted in nine German silent films. In 1926 and 1927 he appeared in Eine Dubarry von heute / A Modern Dubarry (Alexander Korda, 1926) with Maria Corda, Die Frauengasse von Algier / The Bordellos of Algiers (Wolfgang Hoffmann-Harnisch, 1927) with Maria Jacobini, Die rollende Kugel / The Rolling Ball (Erich Schönfelder, 1927) with Erna Morena, Das Schicksal einer Nacht / The Fate of one Night (Erich Schönfelder, 1927) again with Morena, and Am Rande der Welt / At the Edge of the World (Karl Grune, 1927) with Brigitte Helm.

In 1928 and 1929 followed Das letzte Souper / Theatre (Mario Bonnard, 1928) with Marcella Albani, the sports film Ariadne in Hoppegarten (Robert Dinesen, 1928) again with Maria Jacobini, Die Dame auf der Banknote / The Lady on the Banknote (Karl Leiter, 1929) with Anita Dorris, and Anschluß um Mitternacht / Call at Midnight (Mario Bonnard, 1929) again with Albani.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1924/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Hans Natge.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4195/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ernst Sandau, Berlin.

His father opposes his marrying the daughter of a revue artist

Jean Bradin also acted in Britain, first in The Island of Despair (Henry Edwards, 1926) with Matheson Lang and Marjorie Hume. In Ewald André Dupont's Moulin Rouge (1928), he is the aristocratic lover of Olga Tschechowa's daughter, played by Eve Gray, but his father (Georges Tréville) opposes his marrying the daughter of a revue artist.

While Moulin Rouge originally was released as a silent film, in 1929, a part-talkie version was made with music and some sound effects but without dialogue. In the comedy Champagne (Alfred Hitchcock, 1928), a spoiled heiress, played by Betty Balfour, defies her father (Ferdinand von Alten) by running off to marry her lover (Bradin). "However, Daddy has a few tricks up his sleeve", according to IMDb.

In 1930, Bradin played an aristocratic suitor who offered a film contract to Louise Brooks's Lucienne in the early French sound film Prix de beauté / Miss Europe (Augusto Genina, 1930). The film is about a girl who joins the pageant contest of Miss Europe in San Sebastian, against the wishes of her jealous lover (Georges Charlia). Winning, she is surrounded by men but returns to her lover despite a film offer. Miserable because of their misery, she escapes her lover and does a screen test... Brooks' talking and singing were dubbed.

Between 1930 and 1939, Jean Bradin acted in six more French sound films. For Bradin, 1930-1932 were still productive years, with Le secret du docteur / Thew Doctor's Secret (Charles de Rochefort, 1930), David Golder (Julien Duvivier, 1931) with Harry Baur, Deux fois vingt ans / Forty years (Charles-Félix Tavano, 1931) with Germaine Rouer, and the crime film La complice / The Accomplice (Giuseppe Guarino, 1932), which was released in France in 1933.

Yet, after a gap of several years, Jean Bradin only acted in two more films, Sacha Guitry's Remontons les Champs-Élysées / Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées (Robert Bibal, Sacha Guitry, 1938) and Feyder's La loi du nord / Law of the North (Jacques Feyder, 1939), starring Michèle Morgan. Bradin died in 1969 in Paris. He was 70.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Editore, Milano, no. 321. Photo: S.A.G. Leoni. Camilla Horn and Warwick Ward in Die Frauengasse von Algier / The Bordellos of Algiers (Wolfgang Hoffmann-Harnisch, 1927). Mistake alert: Jean Bradin was the other male star of the film.

Sources: Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.