Valdemar Psilander

Valdemar Psilander (1884-1917) was the most popular star of the Danish cinema of the 1910s. Psilander took the German, Russian and Hungarian audiences by storm. At Nordisk, he would play in 83 films in six years.


Austrian postcard by Projektograph, Vienna / Nordisk Films Compagni. Design by Theo Matejko, Wien (Vienna).


Austrian postcard by Projectograph Aktiengesellschaft, Wien. Photo: Nordisk. Card mailed in 1914.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1450. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid / The Man Without A Future (Holger-Madsen, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1553. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid / The Man Without A Future (Holger-Madsen, 1916). The German title was Prinz im Exil.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1617. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Manden uden Fremtid / The Man Without A Future (Holger-Madsen, 1916).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1850. Photo: Nordisk. Still for Das zweite Ich / Lykken / The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1914. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander in Sfinxens Hemmelighed / The Secret of the Sphinx (Robert Dinesen, 1918). The German title was Das Geheimnis des Sphinx.


German postcard by Photochemie Berlin, no. K. 1916. Photo: Nordisk. Still for Das zweite Ich / Lykken / The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918) with Ebba Thomsen.


German postcard by Photochemie Berlin, no. K. 1921. Photo: Nordisk. Still for Das zweite Ich / Lykken / The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2627. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psylander and Gudrun Houlberg-Nissen in Kærlighedsleg / Love Game (A.W. Sandberg, 1918). The German title was Der ewige Rausch.

Kneeling and begging

Valdemar Psilander was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1884. His family originated from Greece, and one of his ancestors was named Psilandros. They later lived in Sweden. Already at the age of 16, he played small parts on stage. Eventually, he got leads as a stage actor, but in 1910, he decided to finish his stage career and move over to the burgeoning cinema.

Psilander debuted in the fall of 1910 for the small company Regia Art Film, with the title role in the Oscar Wilde adaptation Dorian Grays Portræt / The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Axel Strøm, 1910) with Clara Wieth, credited as Clara Pontoppidan, co-starring.

Shortly thereafter, he was engaged by Nordisk Film. There he rose to stardom thanks to his role in the successful film Ved faenglets port / The Temptations of the Big City (August Blom, 1911) again opposite Clara Wieth. It was his first production at Nordisk, and he became the company's highest-paid actor.

Despite his imposing size and posture, we see him often vulnerable in this film: kneeling to mothers and girlfriends, begging for mercy for his behaviour. Striking is his habit of looking directly towards the spectator, as if he is begging the spectator as well.

Psilander took the German, Russian and Hungarian audiences by storm. The next six years, he would play in 83 films for Nordisk. Even when the film had a mediocre screenplay, it was - at least in the public's eyes - an attraction simply because of the charismatic star.


Danish postcard. Photo: Nordisk.


German postcard by Jarcho & Bening. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Else Fröhlich in En lektion / Avia tikeren og journalistens hustru / The Aviator and the Journalist's Wife (August Blom, 1911). It was Fröhlich's film debut. The German written release title was Der Aviatiker und die Frau des Journalisten. This card was made for publicity for the Hamburg-based cinema Park-Kino, Eidelstedtlerweg 9, owned by Karl Steigerwald. According to Filmmuseum Hamburg, Park-Kino was active in the years 1913-1921, so either the cinema showed a film that was at least two years old (not uncommon), or there was another Park-Kino in Hamburg before 1913.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin.


Austrian postcard by BKWI, no. 2. Photo: Projektograph Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna, distributor of Nordisk Films Co., Copenhagen. Valdemar Psilander and Ellen Aggerholm in Højt Spil / A Dash for Liberty (August Blom, 1913).


Austrian postcard by BKWI, no. 3. Photo: Projektograph Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna, distributor of Nordisk Films Co, Copenhagen. Publicity still for Gæstespillet / One Life, One Love (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1913) with Else Fröhlich.


Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Vienna, 1916. Publicity still for Gæstespillet / One Life, One Love (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1913) with Else Fröhlich.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1554. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Manden uden Fremtid / The Man without a Future (Holger-Madsen 1916). The German title was Prinz im Exil.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1851. Photo: Nordisk Films.


Hungarian postcard by Rubens, Budapest, no. 9. Photo: Strelisky, 1915.


Hungarian postcard by Rubens, Budapest. Photo: Strelisky, 1915. The back refers to the showing of a Psilander film at the Royal Orfeum in Budapest.

Asta Nielsen

In the same year, 1911, Valdemar Psilander played opposite the new female star of the Danish cinema, Asta Nielsen, in Den sorte drom / The Black Dream (Urban Gad, 1911). Director Urban Gad had also directed Nielsen in her film debut, Afgrunden / Abyss (Urban Gad, 1910), and he would soon marry his diva.

In Den sorte drom, Psilander again showed his character's vulnerability, this time using humour (clumsy mistakes). Asta Nielsen made another film with Psilander, Balletdanserinden / Ballet Dancer (August Blom, 1911), and then left with Gad for Berlin. She would have a prolific career there.

Valdemar Psilander stayed in Denmark and continued to appear in such films as Et drama paa havet / The Great Ocean Disaster (Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen, 1912), Den sorte Kansler / The Black Chancellor (August Blom, 1912), Evangeliemandens Liv / A Preacher's Life (Holger-Madsen, 1915), Pro Patria (August Blom, 1916), and Klovnen / The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).

Before and during the First World War, the Danish company Nordisk gained enormously, thanks to Psilander's success. Psilander earned 100.000 Danish crowns in 1915. In comparison, his colleague Olaf Fönss only gained 14.000 crowns that year. In 1916, Nordisk, however, refused him when he called for a raise to 250.000 Danish crowns, so he quit at the end of 1916. Psilander founded his own production company, Psilander-Film. But before it had really started, he suddenly died.

Only 32 years old, Valdemar Psilander passed away in 1917. At the peak of his career. Some say he died of a cardiac affliction, others say it was suicide. Valdemar Psilander had been married to actress Edith Buemann. She afterwards said that he had been on drugs and was warned by doctors not to combine this with alcohol. Yet another version, more apt to his film roles, was that a Russian rival in love had come from St. Petersburg to shoot him. After Valdemar Psilander's death, Nordisk still had so many of his films on the shelves that they continued to release new films with him until 1920.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1852. Photo: Nordisk. Publicity still for Klovnen / The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1853. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Gudrun Houlberg in Klovnen / The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1854. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Gudrun Houlberg in Klovnen / The Clown (A.W. Sandberg, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1912. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Lydia (Holger Madsen, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1918. Photo: Nordisk Film Co. Valdemar Psilander in Favoriten (Robert Dinesen, 1917), released in Germany as Der tote Automobilist.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1922. Photo: Nordisk.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1930. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander and Else Fröhlich in Rytterstatuen / For the King's Statue (A.W. Sandberg, 1919). Its German release title was Um das Bild des Königs.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1932. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Lydia (Holger-Madsen, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1939. Photo: Nordisk. Alma Hinding and Valdemar Psilander in Das geheimnis des Sphinx, the German release title for the Danish silent film Sfinxens Hemmelighed / The Secret of the Sphinx (Robert Dinesen, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1943. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Rytterstatuen / For the King's Statue (A.W. Sandberg, 1919). Its German release title was Um das Bild des Königs. The woman is Augusta Blad, who played the mother of Psilander's character.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1944. Photo: Nordisk. Valdemar Psilander in Rytterstatuen / For the King's Statue (A.W. Sandberg, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1945. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander in Hans store Chance / Jernaktierne / His Big Breakthrough (Hjalmar Davidsen, 1919), released in Germany as Panik. The actress might be Johanne Blom Fritz-Petersen.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1960. Photo: Nordisk.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2626. Photo: Nordisk Films, Copenhagen. Gudrun Houlberg-Nissen and Valdemar Psylander in Kærlighedsleg / Love Game (A.W. Sandberg, 1918). The German film title was Der ewige Rusch.


German postcard by MMB, no. 452. Photo: F.J. Wesselsky. The card has on the back Dutch publicity for J. Bijloos, Eau de Cologne.

Sources: Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish), Schiave bianche allo specchio. Le origini del cinema in Scandinavia 1896-1918, Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos) and IMDb.

Louis Davids

Dutch cabaret and revue artist Louis Davids (1883-1939) appeared in twenty Dutch films, both silent and sound pictures. He is widely considered one of the Netherlands biggest names in performing arts, and many of his songs are evergreens in the Netherlands.


Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 582. Photo: Godfried de Groot.


Louis Davids, Rik and Adolphe Engers in Op stap (1935). Dutch postcard by M.B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Dick van Maarseveen, Den Haag / Nationaal Film. Publicity still for Op stap / On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Dutch postcard by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, no. B 2137. Photo: Spaarnestad Fotoarchief, Harlem. Caption: Louis Davids in his dressing room, 1935 / 100th performance of the revue 'Hoe maller, hoe mooier' (The crazier, the better).

Wonder child

Louis Davids was born Simon David in 1883 in Rotterdam's notorious Zandstraat quarter into a poor Jewish family. He was the son of the comedian and cafe owner Levie David and Francina Terveen. Both parents were performing artists, and their children, Louis, his older brother Hakkie, and his younger sisters Rika and Heintje Davids, started their entertainment careers at a young age.

Five years old, Louis sang in a mini-costume and high hat at all the state fairs with his brother Hakkie playing the piano. Newspapers called little Louis a ‘Wonder Child’ or ‘Miniature Comedian’, and he was very successful. A big chance came a few years later. At seven, he signed a contract with the Tivoli Theatre in Rotterdam, where he performed as Louis Davids Jr.

Later, he performed with his sister Rika at fairs, in coffee houses and music halls and became a versatile artist. After an argument with his father, the 13-year-old left for England to assist the magician Akimoto. A year later, his father brought his son home, penniless but with a lot more experience in variety theatre. Together with his sister Rika, he managed to secure a job outside of the fairs, working at the famous theatre Pschorr.

Brother and sister Davids moved to Amsterdam to work with the variety director Frits van Haarlem at the Carré circus theatre, where they had plenty of success in creating revues after English fashion. In the cafe-chantant Victoria in the Nes, a street in the old centre of Amsterdam, they performed songs like 'Een reisje langs den Rijn' (A trip along the Rhine). During that time, the Nes and the artists who performed there were not highly rated. Louis, therefore, hoped to return to Frits van Haarlem. After Rika married English magician John Weil and moved to England, Louis formed a new duo with his youngest sister Henriëtte (Heintje). The second Davids duo was also a success. Heintje’s husband, Philip Pinkhof, wrote texts for the duo. In 1906, Davids married Rebecca Kokernoot, with whom he had a daughter, Kitty. He was unhappy in his marriage.

Louis’ breakthrough was Koning 'Kziezoowat in Amsterdam / King Sissiwat in Amsterdam (1906). This was the first major revue in the Netherlands, written by Louis Davids and Frits van Haarlem, with Davids in the leading role. For this revue, four short films with Louis and Heintje Davids were produced by Frits van Haarlem, which became part of the revue. In 1909, Davids furthered his success by working with theatre director Henri ter Hall in the revue 'Doe er een deksel op' (Make it a cover). The performances took place in Rotterdam, his birthplace. Rika was back, and Heintje had a characteristic role. As with the previous revue, it was especially up to local events, and the surprise element was the key to its success.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 803, 1925-1926.


Dutch postcard by Monopole Film, Rotterdam. Photo: Dick van Maarseveen. Still of a set built for Bleeke Bet (Alex Benno, Richard Oswald, 1934), a street in the old neighbourhood of De Jordaan in Amsterdam. The set designer was Hans Ledersteger.

He, she and the piano

While on tour, Louis Davids met British dancer Margie Morris, who had moved to the Netherlands in 1913. Louis and Maggie formed the duo ‘He, She and the Piano’, where Maggie would take on the role of pianist and composer. They wrote dozens of songs together. He wrote the text, she the music. The charming Morris led him from the comic repertoire towards more mature songs. Margie encouraged Louis' artistic talents and helped him develop his own style. Thanks to the influence of English and American music in her compositions, the level of Louis’s songs increased. Their innovative, a bit jazz-like repertoire soon became known across the country. Davids and Morris also starred in countless revues such as 'Loop naar den Duivel' (Walk to the Devil) in 1915, for which they wrote 'We gaan naar Zandvoort aan de zee' (We go to Zandvoort by the sea), now a Dutch evergreen.

They also started to appear in the Dutch cinema. Their silent films include Amerikaansche meisjes / American Girls (Maurits Binger, Louis Davids, 1918) with Lola Cornero and Beppie de Vries, and De duivel in Amsterdam / The Devil in Amsterdam (Theo Frenkel, 1919) with Eduard Verkade and Louis Bouwmeester.

A famous stage musical from this period, for which they wrote several classic songs, is 'De Jantjes' (The Tars), written by Herman Bouber and Davids in 1920. This hugely successful stage play was also released as a silent film, De Jantjes / The Tars (Maurits Binger, B.E. Doxat-Pratt, 1922), starring Beppie de Vries and Johan Elsensohn, and as a sound film, De Jantjes / The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934).

Bouber, Davids and Morris also wrote the stage musicals Bleeke Bet / Bleak Beth (1917) and Oranje Hein / Orange Hein (1918), all situated in the Jordaan. Davids also appeared in other silent films such as the Herman Heijermans adaptation Schakels / Links (Maurits Binger, 1920) with Jan van Dommelen, Adelqui Migliar and Annie Bos, and Menschenwee/  People woe (Theo Frenkel, 1921) with Willem van der Veer and Coen Hissink.

Davids celebrated his 25th anniversary as an artist in 1919 in Rotterdam's Pschorr Theatre. After his jubilee, Louis travelled with Margie, Rika and Heintje to India for a year and a half. In 1922, Margie Morris left him because of his countless infidelities. The couple had never married, but they had a son together, Louis. His wife, Betsy, refused to divorce Louis, so they remained officially married until his death. Louis’s children would never have a good relationship with their father in their mature lives.


Dutch postcard by Hollandia Film Prod. / Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: publicity still for De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934) with Jan van Ees, Willy Costello and Johan Kaart Jr. as the three 'Jantjes'.


Dutch postcard by M. B. & Z. (M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam). Photo: Nationaal-film. Henriëtte Davids and Louis Davids in Op Stap / On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935).

The little man

Between 1922 and 1926, Louis Davids was the director of the Casino Variété in Rotterdam, but directing did not hold his attention for long. In 1929, Davids appeared in the revue 'Lach en vergeet' (Laugh and Forget) with the song which would probably become his most popular title, 'De kleine man' (The Little Man). It was written by Jacques van Tol, with whom Davids would work closely until he died in 1939, but Van Tol would be working anonymously.

Although he was born in Rotterdam, Louis Davids was a popular performer of the ‘Jordaan repertoire’. The Jordaan is a 17th-century-built working-class neighbourhood in the heart of Amsterdam. Davids also appeared in typical ‘Jordaan films’, a genre based on the popular plays by Herman Bouber and Davids and Morris, such as Bleeke Bet / Bleak Beth (Alex Benno, 1923) with Alida van Gijtenbeek and Jan van Dommelen, and Oranje Hein / Orange Hein (Alex Benno, 1925), starring Johan Elsensohn and Aaf Bouber.

Davids moved to sound film in the short Hollandsch Hollywood / Dutch Hollywood (Ernst Winar, 1933), also with Heintje Davids and Fien de la Mar. After the enormous success of the sound version of De Jantjes / The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934), he made one more film, Op stap / On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935), co-starring Fien de la Mar and Frits van Dongen (a.k.a. Philip Dorn). In this musical, Davids sang several songs, including his evergreen 'Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent' (When you are born for a nickel).

At the time, Davids was especially renowned for his work for the Scheveningen Kurhaus Cabaret in the summers from 1931 to 1938. There, Davids founded the careers of Dutch cabaret stars like Wim Kan, Corry Vonk, and Wim Sonneveld. In 1937, Davids had to give up his cabaret work at the Kurhaus due to his asthma. That year, he was named a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

In 1939, Louis Davids died in Amsterdam at 55. Some sources, like IMDb, mention cancer as the cause, while other sources mention a heart attack or his asthma as the cause. During the Second World War, Rika and Harkie Davids were both murdered in 1943 in the Sobibor concentration camp. Heintje knew how to survive the Nazis. After the war, she continued to perform and keep the repertoire of her brother alive. Today, Louis Davids’s songs are still popular. They can be heard on the soundtrack of films like Rooie Sien / Red Sien (Frans Weisz, 1975) featuring Willeke Alberti, and TV series like Moeder, ik wil bij de revue / Mother, I want to join the revue (Rita Horst, 2012) with Egbert Jan Weeber.


Heintje Davids and Sylvain Poons sing 'Omdat ik zoveel van je hou' (Because I love you so much) in De Jantjes/The Tars (Jaap Speyer, 1934). Source: Pieter de Groot (YouTube).


Louis Davids sings 'Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent' (When you are born for a nickel) in Op stap / On the Move (Ernst Winar, 1935). Source: brassens66 (YouTube).

Sources: Heintje Davids, Johan Luger, H.P. van den Aardweg (Louis Davids, Een kleine man die je nooit vergeet – Dutch), M.E.H.N. Mout (Huygens.nl - Dutch), Een leven lang theater (Dutch), Stadsarchief Rotterdam (Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Ludmila Tchérina

Beautiful Ludmila Tchérina (1924-2004) was a legendary prima ballerina, who was also an internationally famous actress, artist and sculptor. She starred in several films, including a quartet by British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: The Red Shoes (1948), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955) and Luna de Miel (1959).


French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 116. Photo: Roger Carlet.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 577, offered by Les Carbones Korès. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 835. Photo: Universal International.

Prima ballerina

Ludmila or Ludmilla Tchérina was born as Monique Tchemerzine into the Russian aristocracy in Paris, France, in 1924. She was the daughter of Circassian Prince Avenir Tchemerzine, a former general who had escaped from St. Petersburg, and Stéphane Finette, a Frenchwoman. The family had little money, but Monique started ballet around the age of three, eventually studying with some of the greatest names in Paris, the former Maryinsky ballerina Olga Preobrajenska, the former Bolshoi ballet master Ivan Clustine, and the influential French teacher Gustave Ricaux.

Her first teacher, though, was Blanche D'Alessandri, who came from the strict Italian school and instilled technique with the help of taps on the body from a stick. This old-fashioned approach worked wonders. After escaping with her mother to Marseilles at the start of the Second World War, she made her professional début at 15 and was a star dancer at the Opéra de Marseille at 16. In 1943, she transferred to the Nouveaux Ballets de Monte Carlo, where she was spotted by Serge Lifar, then director of the Paris Opéra Ballet. He invented her stage name, Ludmila Tchérina (used next to Ludmilla Tchérina), and choreographed 'Romeo and Juliet', to Tchaikovsky's 'Fantasy Overture', for himself and Tchérina, an extended pas de deux that was premiered at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1943.

In 1945, she was a principal dancer with the Ballet des Champs-Élysées and performed in Paris concerts with Edmond Audran, who became her husband in 1946. She created various roles in Lifar's ballets, including 'Mephisto Waltz' in 1945, 'A la memoire d'un heros' (In Memory of a Hero) in 1946 and in 'Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastian' (The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian) in 1957.

She danced often with the Paris Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet as a guest performer. Tchérina was 21 when she was offered her first film role in the French drama Un revenant / The Lover's Return (Christian-Jaque, 1946), starring Louis Jouvet and Gaby Morlay.

In 1948, she made her English-speaking film debut with the stylised fairy tale classic The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948), featuring Moira Shearer and Marius Goring, but she did not understand what she was saying. She had to memorise her dialogue phonetically.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 290. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (EDUG), no. 621. Photo: Lucienne Chevert.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 16, offered by Les Carbones Korès. Photo: Victory Films.

Funeral march

Ludmila Tchérina won the French César award for a short film version of Lifar’s ballet A La Mémoire du Hero / In Memory of a Hero (Ray Ventura, 1951). In this film, she portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte, dancing in travesty to the Funeral March of Beethoven's 'Eroica'.

She went on to perform gloriously in The Tales of Hoffman (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1951). Both of these films also featured her husband, Edmond Audran. Shortly after the filming of The Tales of Hoffman, Audran was tragically killed in a road accident at age 33. The car accident left her shattered, and the grief-stricken Tchérina went into seclusion.

She was convinced to return to her art form in 1953 by her second husband, Raymond Roi. He was a renowned French financier and industrialist, who remained her husband until she died in 2004.

Roi's wealth gave her the freedom to form her own experimental company, which existed from 1958 to 1959 and appeared at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt (now Théâtre de la Ville). For this, she commissioned 'Les Amants de Téruel', a dance theatre piece, devised by Raymond Rouleau and choreographed by Milko Sparemblek to a commissioned score by Mikis Theodorakis, and also 'Le Feu aux poudres' (1958), which had a libretto by film director Jean Renoir and a choreography by Paul Goubé.

In 1960, Ludmila Tchérina was the first Western dancer to appear at the Bolshoi Theatre and in 1970, she still enthralled audiences with her dance performance in 'Joan of Arc at the Stake'.


British postcard in the Picture Show Postcard Series.


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. V 321. Photo: Unitalia / Vaselli. Ludmila Tcherina in La figlia di Mata Hari / Mata Hari's Daughter (Carmine Gallone, 1954).


West German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 941. Photo: Vaselli / Unionfilm. Ludmila Tcherina in La figlia di Mata Hari / Mata Hari's Daughter (Carmine Gallone, 1954). The German title was Die Tochter der Mata Hari.

Breathing and movement

The Tales of Hoffman had perked the eyes and ears of Hollywood, and Ludmila Tchérina made her American film début in Sign of the Pagan (Douglas Sirk, 1954), co-starring with Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance. In this film, she performed a straight dramatic role along with an interpretative dance. This marked her first departure from classical ballet.

She also starred in the British Die Fledermaus adaptation Oh...Rosalinda!! (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1955) with Anthony Quayle and Dennis Price, Luna de miel / Honeymoon (Michael Powell, 1959), with Anthony Steel, and the film version of Les amants de Teruel / The Lovers of Teruel (Raymond Rouleau, 1962).

From then on, she performed less and less in films but regularly appeared in television shows. In the theatre, she played 'Anna Karenina' (1975), very dramatic in appearance and manner. On French television, she starred in Salomé (1972), La Dame aux camélias (1974) and La Reine de Saba / The Queen of Sheba (1975).

Ludmila Tchérina had a lifelong passion for painting and exhibited in many major galleries. In an exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, she painted and danced to illustrate her concept of ‘total art’ in which all aspects are born of breathing and movement. She also conceived and executed several monumental sculptures, including 'Europe à Coeur', chosen in 1991 by the EU to symbolise the union of Europe and now located at the European Parliament. In 1994, she created 'Europa Operanda', now installed at the French terminal of Eurotunnel.

In 1980, she was decorated Officier, Legion d'honneur in 1980. She authored two novels in the 1980s: 'L'amour au miroir' (1983) and 'La femme a l'envers' (1986). Ludmila Tchérina died in 2004 after a long illness at her luxurious home in Paris.


Small West German collector card by Druckerei Hanns Uhrig, Frankfurt a.M. Photo: NF. Still from Oh... Rosalinda!! (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1955).


French postcard by Imp. De Marchi Frères, Marseille.


Belgian postcard by Bromofophoto, Bruxelles, no. v 42.


Scene from Fandango (Emil E.Reinert, 1949) with Luis Mariano and Ludmilla Tchérina. Source: ximowb (YouTube).

Sources: Nadine Meisner (The Independent), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.