Ilona Karolewna

Ilona Karolewna (?-?) was a Ukrainian actress and dancer who starred in many successful revues in Austria and Germany. Between 1924 and 1932, she had a brief film career and acted in six Austrian, German and French films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3403/1, 1928-1929. Photo: d'Ora, Wien / Arthur Benda.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3403/2. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Vienna.

A black Pierrot in the snow

Ilona Karolewna was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ilona had a sister, Gina, with whom she performed a dance act throughout Europe in the late 1920s. She was also an advertising model for products including AEG refrigerators, Odol, and Pixavon shampoo.

She made her film debut in Max Linder's last feature, Max, der Zirkuskönig / King of the Circus / Le Roi du Cirque (Édouard-Émile Violet, 1924). It was shot at the Vita-Film studios in Vienna between January and April 1924. The film was restored by Lobster Film in 2021, based on material from 11 countries.

Next, she appeared in the Austrian film Haifische der Nachkriegszeit / Post-war Sharks (Eugen Preiß, Louis Seeman, 1926) with Vera Voronina and a then unknown Oskar Sima.

Then followed the Harry Piel film Der schwarze Pierrot / The Black Pierrot (Harry Piel, 1926), with exteriors shot in the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland. In Der schwarze Pierrot, Harry is the last of his dynasty, hunted and robbed by his enemies.

Karolewna plays Harry's love interest, Isabella Battista, who, however, abuses him for a political conspiracy. When he finally discovers this, a 'bal costumé' is going on, so he flees into the snow and ice dressed as Pierrot, a black dot within the white menacing nature.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5102. Photo: d'Ora, Paris.


German collector card by Eckstein-Halpaus, Dresden, in the series Die Tanzbühnen der Welt, Group 4 'Die Revue und Variétébühne', no. 206. Photo: Schneider. Caption: Ilona Karolewna, a beautiful dancer who was the centrepiece of many a successful revue.

A last will scribbled on the wall of a catacomb

Ilona Karolewna again acted with Harry Piel in his film, Was ist los im Zirkus Beely? / The Phantom of the Circus (Harry Piel, 1927). In this film, Piel's partner is not a woman but a giant tiger, called Bylard. Karolewna plays a blind girl, Rosa Johnson. Thanks to a giant capital which Harry finds at the end of the film, a clinic for the blind can be founded.

The film also includes a mysterious murder, a last will scribbled on the wall of a catacomb, a mysterious masked man, and a fight in the circus tent's cupola above a cage full of lions. Piel was never afraid of improbable scenarios, as long as they provided sensations.

Afterwards, Karolewna played the girlfriend of Jack Mylong in Die Villa im Tiergarten / The Villa in the Zoo (Franz Osten, 1927), a satire on the life of idle bourgeois people, including Mylong and Karolewna. The film starts as a comedy but evolves into a social drama when a desperate couple (Joe Stöckel and Aud Egede Nissen) invades the villa.

After many years of absence from the sets, Ilona Karolewna played one last minor part in the Paramount production Camp volant / Transit Camp (Max Reichmann, 1932). In this early sound film set in the circus world, all actors speak in their own language. The film was shot at the Paramount studios near Paris, and the leads were Ivan Koval-Samborsky, Meg Lemonnier and Thomy Bourdelle.

Our sources don't give information about Ilona Karolewna's later life.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 57. Photo: d'Ora.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3403/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Manassé. Imprint: Gelukkig Nieuwjaar (Happy New Year in Dutch).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Sirens of the Silent Screen (Facebook), Mattias Bleckmann (Harry Piel: Ein Kino-Mythos und seine Zeit) and IMDb.