Argentine Love (1924)

Suave, dark-haired Ricardo Cortez peaked in the 1920s as Paramount's romantic lover opposite the big female stars of the decade. In the lost film Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924), his leading lady was Bebe Daniels. With a series of Italian postcards by Firenze-based editor Ballerini & Fratini (B.F.F. Edit.), we try to reconstruct this romantic drama, of which the sensual Italian release title was Amore Argentino.


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 757. Photo: S.A.I. Films Paramount, Roma. Ricardo Cortez in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924). Italian release title: Amore Argentino.


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 756. Photo: S.A.I. Films Paramount, Roma. Bebe Daniels, James Rennie and Ricardo Cortez in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924). Italian release title: Amore Argentino.


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 758. Photo: S.A.I. Films Paramount, Roma. Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924).

A fiery but jealous Latin lover

Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924) was based on a short story by Spanish author and politician Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, adapted by Gerald C. Duffy and John Russell. The film was directed and produced by Allan Dwan for the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and distributed by Paramount. The film premiered in New York on 22 December 1924, before being released in cinemas on 29 December.

Bebe Daniels plays Consuelo Garcia, the daughter of the mayor of the Argentine town of Alcorta, who returns to Argentina after a two-year stay in the United States. During her absence, her father has arranged a marriage for her to Juan Martin (Ricardo Cortez), in return for Martin's financial assistance. However, Consuela has fallen in love with the American engineer Philip Sears (James Rennie), who is coming to her country to build a bridge.

Consuelo refuses Juan but gives no reason. Juan feels insulted, partly because she gives him no explanation. The jealous man furiously vows to kill anyone who comes between them. After he sees Rafael (Mark Gonzales), the son of Senator Cornejo (Mario Majeroni), flirting with Consuelo, he kills him. The people of Alcorta hold Consuela's apparently willful refusal of Juan responsible for Rafael’s death. She sends a warning to Philip, who comes immediately. In the meantime, the populace vents its spite on Consuelo, beating her while she is tied to the end of a cart. Philip rescues her.

Consuelo, fearing that her fiery Latin lover might kill Philip too, pretends to love the man her father wants. She even asks Philip to help them elope. Philip puts on Juan's cloak and hat and gallantly assists them to the border and then returns to Alcorta. Consuelo then confesses the truth to Juan and, though she does not love him, promises to honour the agreement to marry him. Juan, struck by the engineer’s chivalrous behaviour, gallantly steps aside, setting Consuelo free. Philip and Consuelo can find their path to happiness. Juan sets off on his journey back to Alcorta, where he intends to turn himself in. But he will never make it there, as he is killed by Senator Cornejo, Rafael’s father.

'Latin Lover' Ricardo Cortez was, in fact, born as Jacob Krantz, the son of emigrated Austrian-Jewish parents. Krantz started in Hollywood when Rudolph Valentino was at the peak of his popularity. Paramount transformed him into the Spanish Ricardo Cortez to replace Valentino, whom the studio found too 'difficult and demanding'. The studio gave Cortez a growing number of Latin Lover parts, as in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924), and The Spaniard (Raoul Walsh, 1925) with Jetta Goudal. Cortez did not want to be restricted to that type. Yet, he still often had to play many romantic partners of the leading female stars of the day, including Greta Garbo in her first Hollywood film, Torrent (Monta Bell, 1926). In the following decade, Ricardo Cortez had a very active career, acting in between 5 and 8 films per year.


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 759 Photo: S.A.I. Films Paramount, Roma. Bebe Daniels and James Rennie in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 761. Photo: S.A.I. Films Paramount, Roma. Bebe Daniels and Ricardo Cortez in Argentine Love (Allan Dwan, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ebany, no. 18.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

What's On

For the number fetishists among us: in August, EFSP had a new record: 566,916 views. Of course, we're thrilled and thank you very much for visiting us. Let's give something back. In this post, we'll give you a little preview of things to come and a glimpse of how we work on this blog. And we are: Ivo Blom, Marlene Pilaete and Paul van Yperen, the editor.

7 September: Peter Cushing

Vintage card by Gerimp Corp. Int.-Collection, no. FN 199. Peter Cushing in Twins of Evil (John Hough, 1971).

Of all film star postcards, cards of Spaghetti Western and especially Horror stars are hard to find. So we're proud to present gentle and gentlemanly British actor Peter Cushing (1913-1994). He became a legend in Hammer's remakes of the 1930s Universal Horror classics. He played Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). But maybe he is even better known as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

8 September: Written by Victorien Sardou

French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 98. Photo: Paul Nadar. Victorien Sardou.

The blog's name is European Film Star Postcards, but we like to go beyond the boundaries of our theme. These are often the most popular posts on our blog as well. Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) was an immensely popular French playwright of some 70 plays. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. His plays, such as 'Madame Tallien', 'Madame Sans-Gêne', 'Tosca' and 'Théodora', have been performed by many famous actresses. He owed his initial successes to the actress Virginie Déjazet, for whom he wrote several plays. Others, he wrote especially for Sarah Bernhardt and Gabrielle Réjane. Sardou's plays have been adapted to some popular 19th-century operas and to countless films.

9 September: Demi Moore

American postcard by Fotofolio, no. Z1133. Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Caption: Demi Moore, pregnant with Scout LaRue Willis, Smashbox Studios, Culver City, California, 1991.

We continue our series on the Brat Pack with posts on such versatile actors as Kevin Bacon, Robert Downey Junior, and Demi Moore (1962), who had her breakthrough with the Brat Pack film St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Ten years later, Moore was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood thanks to such blockbusters as Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992) and Indecent Proposal (1993). At the turn of the century, Moore underwent several other setbacks. The American actress and film producer made a glorious comeback when she won a Golden Globe for The Substance (2024). And we love this daring, groundbreaking and much imitated portrait of Moore by Annie Leibovitz, who is on our to-do list.

15 September: Published by F. A. Christensen

French postcard by FA, no. 57. Photo: Félix. Caption: Paul Mounet, Comédie-Française. Paul Mounet.

One week later, EFSP will post about an old French publishing company with the mark 'FA'. There are hundreds of FA cards of actors and other subjects from before the First World War. We were curious and did some research about the company. FA referred to F.A. Christensen in Rueil. The owner was the Danish-born printer Alfred Johannès Christensen (1877-1935). Jean Ritsema of Ross Postcards and David Schofield are preparing a new section about FA on the Vintage Thematic Postcard (VTP) site, which will include our postcards. Jean is one of our dear postcard friends.

18 September: Directed by Paul von Woringen

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2168. Photo: Lotte Neumann-Film. Lotte Neumann in Die Ehe der Charlotte von Brakel / The Marriage of Charlotte von Brakel (Paul von Woringen, 1918).

Another theme is film directors. We already have many posts on well-known directors, and for the coming months we are preparing posts on Marshall Neilan, Robert Wiene and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Less famous is Dutch-born, German film director Paul von Woringen (1859-1928). He was the screenwriter, producer and director of the Deutsche Mutoskop & Biograph (DMB). Von Woringen made the Autorenfilm Die Landstrasse (1913), but also directed several films with Lotte Neumann in her own series of melodramas for DMB.

22 September: Photo by Atelier Oertel

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1007/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Oertel, Berlin. Asta Nielsen in Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925).

We are keen to reveal the forgotten photographers behind the portraits on the thousands of sepia postcards by Verleih Hermann Leiser and Ross Verlag. German photographer Eduard Oertel (1854-1933) is famous for his 19th-century photographs of Berlin, but Atelier Oertel is a forgotten name. Eduard's three children founded the Oertel studio in 1910: Curt (1890-1960), Franz (1891-1978), and Margarethe (1893-1967). Their Berlin photo 'atelier' portrayed many German film stars during the 1910s and 1920s.

23 September: La Collectionneuse: Claudia Cardinale

German postcard by Rüdel Verlag, no. 3561. Photo: PALLAS / Vogelmann. Claudia Cardinale in Cartouche (Philippe de Broca, 1962). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Marlene Pilaete has been writing about female film stars for EFSP since 2013. Her postcard collection is remarkable. In September 2020, the French website l’Encinémathèque stopped, and since then, EFSP has hosted her wonderful blog, La Collectionneuse. On 23 September, Marlene will reflect on the death of Claudia Cardinale, which occurred one year ago.

28 September: La Petite Illustration

Cover of French magazine La Petite Illustration Cinématographique, no. 1, 4 April 1925. Raquel Meller La Terre promise (Henry Roussel, 1925).

This post does not include postcards but covers and pictures of the film issues of La Petite Illustration. This magazine started in 1913 as a weekly literary journal that published news about new novels and stage plays, as a supplement to the newspaper L'Illustration. In 1925, La Petite Illustration Cinématographique was introduced. These magazines were special issues of La Petite Illustration on individual upcoming French silent art films.

2 October: Sharon Tate

Italian postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Eye of the Devil (J. Lee Thompson, 1966).

After nearly 20 years, EFSP has become a kind of database for classic film actors, but many names are still missing. Sharon Tate (1943–1969), the beautiful wife of film director Roman Polanski, stood on our priority list. On 9 August 1969, the pregnant Tate was murdered by members of the Charles Manson Family in Los Angeles. But she was much more than the tragic victim that history made her. Critics received her performances in comedies and dramas positively, and Sharon Tate was regarded as one of Hollywood’s most promising actresses.

3 October: Mary Astor

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5205. Photo: United Artists. Mary Astor and Douglas Fairbanks in Don Q Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp, 1925).

On 3 October, the world’s leading international silent-film festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, starts. Ivo Blom will attend the festival, and EFSP will make daily unofficial festival posts. The 45th edition opens with a classic Swashbuckler, Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), directed by Donald Crisp and starring Douglas Fairbanks. His leading lady is the young Mary Astor (1906–1987). In an acting career that started in the silent era, she made over 100 films. She became famous for her part as femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941), opposite Humphrey Bogart. That same year, she also won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Great Lie (1941).

4 October: Ancient Greece in early cinema

French postcard by Ed. WS or SW, no. 0469. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in France in 1906. Comédie-Française actress Gabrielle Robinne.

Ivo Blom will be in Pordenone for the Museum of Dreamworlds project. At the Giornate del Cinema Muto, he and his Dreamworlds colleagues will present two programmes with unique prints from the BFI National Archive. Both programmes include early films set either in Ancient Rome and Pompeii, or in Ancient Greece and Greek mythology. For the 'Greek programme', early Italian and French films by Aquila, Gaumont and Itala are selected, but also the rare British film Pygmalion and Galatea (1912) with Ivy Close. For this occasion, EFSP presents a series of postcards with photos by Reutlinger of well-known and little-known French stage actresses and singers, dressed up in ancient Greek attire.

Emilio Estevez

American actor, director, and writer Emilio Estevez (1962) is the son of Martin Sheen and brother of Charlie Sheen. He became well-known as a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s. He starred in The Outsiders (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985). He is also known for the cult film Repo Man (1984), and box-office hits like Stakeout (1987), the Western Young Guns (1988) and the Disney comedy The Mighty Ducks (1992). Estevez wrote, directed and acted in Bobby (2006) and The Public (2018).


British postcard by Santoro Graphics, London, no. C 289.


British postcard by Athena International, no. 0334313. Photo: Morgan Creek Productions Inc.Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko in Young Guns (Christopher Cain, 1988).

Leader of the Pack

Emilio Estevez was born on Staten Island, New York City, in 1962. He was the oldest child of artist Janet Sheen and actor Martin Sheen (legally Ramón Estévez). His siblings are Ramon Estevez, Charlie Sheen (birth name Carlos Estévez), and Renée Estevez, all of whom became actors. Estevez initially attended school in the New York public school system but transferred to a private academy once his father's career took off. He lived on Manhattan's Upper West Side until his family moved west in 1968, when his father was cast in Catch-22. Growing up in Malibu, California, Estevez attended Santa Monica High School.

When Estevez was 11 years old, his father bought the family a portable movie camera. As teens, he and future stars Rob Lowe, Chad Lowe, Chris Penn, and Sean Penn were close friends. They used to act, write, produce, and direct movies together. Estevez appeared in Meet Mr. Bomb, a short anti-nuclear power film produced at his high school. He had a bit part in the crime film Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973), starring his father and Sissy Spacek. At 14, he accompanied his father to the Philippines, where Sheen was shooting Apocalypse Now (Francis Coppola, 1979). Estevez was an extra in the classic film about the Vietnam War, but his scenes were deleted. When they returned to Los Angeles, Estevez co-wrote and starred in a high school play about Vietnam veterans called 'Echoes of an Era' and invited his parents to watch it. Sheen recalls being astonished by his son's performance, and "began to realise: my God, he's one of us."

After graduating from Santa Monica High in 1980, Estevez refused to go to college and instead went into acting. Unlike his brother Charlie, Estevez did not adopt their father's stage name, hoping to avoid riding his father's coattails. His first role was in a drama produced by the Catholic Paulist order. Soon after, he made his stage debut with his father in 'Mister Roberts' at Burt Reynolds' dinner theatre in Jupiter, Florida. He made his big-screen debut opposite Matt Dillon in Tex (Tim Hunter, 1982), based on a novel by S.E. Hinton. Estevez received much attention during the 1980s for being a member of the Brat Pack and was credited as the leader of this group of young actors. Estevez and Rob Lowe established the Brat Pack when cast as supporting 'Greasers' in The Outsiders (Francis Coppola, 1983), also based on a S.E. Hinton novel and also starring Matt Dillon. Lowe was cast as C. Thomas Howell's older brother Sodapop and Estévez as the drunken Two-Bit Matthews. During production, he approached his character as a laid-back guy and thought up Two-Bit's interest in Mickey Mouse, shown by his uniform of Mickey Mouse T-shirts and watching cartoons.

After The Outsiders, Estevez made a big splash as the punk-rocker turned car-repossessor Otto Maddox in the cult film Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984). Then he co-starred as Andrew (The Athlete) in the seminal Brat Pack flick The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985) and its successor St. Elmo's Fire (John Hughes, 1985). The other original members of the Brat Pack were Judd Nelson, Sean Penn, Anthony Michael Hall, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy and Andrew McCarthy. Following the success of these back-to-back John Hughes films, he made his screenwriting debut with That Was Then, This Is Now (Christopher Cain, 1985), a sequel to The Outsiders and again based on an S.E. Hinton novel. He also co-starred in the film. He was then nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for the Science Fiction-Horror comedy Maximum Overdrive (Stephen King, 1986), which received overwhelmingly negative reviews.

He had his filmmaking debut with the romantic crime drama Wisdom (Emilio Estevez, 1986) with fellow Brat Packer Demi Moore. It made Estevez the youngest person to ever write, direct, and star in a single major film. However, the film was universally panned and struck out at the box office. Estevez was originally cast in Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986) to be Private Chris Taylor but was forced to drop out after production was delayed for two years; the role eventually went to his younger brother Charlie Sheen. Estevez rebounded with lead roles in the comedy/action film Stakeout (John Badham, 1987) with Richard Dreyfuss, and the Westerns Young Guns (Christopher Cain, 1988) and its sequel Young Guns II (Geoff Murphy, 1990), in which he co-starred with Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Philips and his brother Charlie Sheen. Young Guns is a historically accurate retelling of the adventures of Billy the Kid. It opened no. 1 at the box office, eventually earning $45 million from a moderate $11 million budget.


British postcard by TV Hits. Sent by mail in 1992. The Bratpack: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, River Phoenix, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Corey Feldman and Corey Haim.


Australian postcard by TV Hits. Photo: N. Moran / Sygma / Austral International. Photo: Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise in The Outsiders (Francis Coppola, 1983).


Vintage postcard, no. FA 240. Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985).

A film which took over six years to write

In the early 1990s, Emilio Estevez directed, wrote, and co-starred with his brother Charlie in a comedy about garbagemen, Men at Work (Emilio Estevez, 1990). In 1992, he found the career longevity that escaped other Brat Packers by starring in The Mighty Ducks (Stephen Herek, 1992) as Coach Gordon Bombay, a lawyer and former pee wee star and minor hockey prodigy looking to forget the past. He is forced into coaching a pee-wee hockey team as a form of community service. The film turned out to be one of Disney's most successful franchises and was followed by two sequels. The following year, Estevez starred in three films: the dark action thriller Judgment Night (Stephen Hopkins, 1993), the spoof comedy Loaded Weapon 1 (Gene Quintano, 1993) with Samuel L. Jackson, and the comedy/action film Another Stakeout (John Badham, 1993), the less successful sequel to Stakeout.

He agreed to make a brief appearance in D3: The Mighty Ducks (Robert Lieberman, 1996) in exchange for Disney helping him finance and distribute another effort as actor-director, The War at Home (Emilio Estevez, 1996). In the film, he played a Vietnam War veteran dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder, while Martin Sheen played his unsympathetic father. Though smiled on by critics, The War at Home (1996) received a paltry distribution by Disney and thus went largely unseen. A devastated Estevez considered quitting the business. He guest-starred in one episode of the TV series The West Wing (2003) as a younger version of his father's character (Jed Bartlet). Estevez appeared in an uncredited role in the feature film Mission: Impossible (Brian de Palma, 1996), starring Tom Cruise.

He directed and starred opposite his brother Charlie in the TV film Rated X (Emilio Estevez, 2000). It chronicles the story of the Mitchell brothers, Jim and Artie, who were pioneers in the pornography and strip club businesses in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. The production was selected for the Sundance Film Festival. Estevez starred in the thriller Sand (Matt Palmieri, 2000) as part of an ensemble cast that also included Denis Leary, Harry Dean Stanton, and Julie Delpy. In 2003, he made his voice acting debut with the English dubbed version, The 3 Wise Men, of the Spanish animation film Los Reyes Magos (Antonio Navarro, 2003) with his father. Later, Estevez starred in The L.A. Riot Spectacular (Marc Klasfeld, 2005), a satirical film about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In 2008, he guest-starred on his brother's sitcom Two and a Half Men as an old friend of Charlie Sheen's character. Aside from acting, Estevez directed episodes of the television series Cold Case, Close to Home, The Guardian, CSI: NY and Numb3rs. In 2006, he directed the film Bobby, which took over six years to write. The screenplay is a fictionalised account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968, shooting of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his win of the 1968 Democratic presidential primary in California. Producing the film nearly bankrupted Estevez, as the domestic box office gross was not able to cover production costs. The film won a Hollywood Film Award and received a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

Five years later, he directed his father in The Way (Emilio Estevez, 2011), a story about a man who decides to make the Camino de Santiago in Spain after the death of his son in the French Pyrénées. In 2018, Estevez wrote, directed and played in The Public (Emilio Estevez, 2018), starring Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater. The film about caring for the homeless premiered at the at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Emilio Estevez dated Mimi Rogers from 1981 to 1982 and served as best man at her 1987 wedding to Tom Cruise. He was in a relationship with Carey Salley, a Wilhelmina model, until they broke up in 1986. They have a son, Taylor Levi Estevez (1984), and a daughter, Paloma Rae Estevez (1986). In 1992, Estevez married singer-choreographer Paula Abdul. They divorced in 1994, with Abdul later stating that she wanted children and Estevez, who already had two children, did not. He was also briefly engaged to actress Demi Moore, and they remain good friends. The two starred as a feuding married couple in Bobby (Emilio Estevez, 2006), alongside Moore's real-life husband at the time, Ashton Kutcher.


French poster card by Première, 1989. Image: Morgan Creek / Star Production. French poster with Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko in Young Guns (Christopher Cain, 1988).


French poster card by Editions Avant Garde, no. P1239. Poster: Morgan Creek Entertainment / 20th Century Fox. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater in Young Guns II (Geoff Murphy, 1990). Caption: The West just got wilder.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

John Ericson

German-American film and television actor John Ericson (1926-2020) started in the 1950s as a young hunk with wavy-haired good looks and an athletic build. He made a series of popular films for MGM, including Teresa (1951), The Student Prince (1954) and the classic Western Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955). Later, Ericson worked mostly for television, most memorably as the partner of Anne Francis in Honey West (1965-1966).


Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 81. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. John Ericson in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955). The Spanish film title was Conspiración de silencio.


Vintage postcard, no. 358. Photo: M.G.M.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 708. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. John Ericson and Pier Angeli in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951).

Career kick-start

John Ericson was born Joachim Alexander Ottokar Meibes in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1926. He was the son of Carl F. Meibes, a German chemist and Ellen Wilson, a Swedish actress and opera singer. Escaping from the Nazi regime, his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was three. At first, living in Detroit, they eventually settled in New York, where his dad (according to a 1955 newspaper article) found lucrative employment as president of a food extract company.

After graduating from Newton High School, John enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, financially supporting his studies by working at a Walgreens drug store. Most sources, including Wikipedia, incorrectly cite his acting debut as being in 'Stalag 17' on Broadway, but Ericson himself stated (in a 1989 interview with Skip E. Lowe) that his career kick-started with the romantic wartime drama Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951), filmed in Italy by Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Afterwards, he made the decision not to sign a studio contract for fear of being typecast as 'boy-next-door' types. On the strength of his performance in Teresa, producer/director José Ferrer offered Ericson not only what amounted to being the nominal lead in 'Stalag 17' (1951), but the opportunity to play an initially unsympathetic part as the slick, cynical gambler J. J. Sefton.

The coveted film role in Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953) was eventually assigned to William Holden, who won an Academy Award for his role.

Between 1954 and 1955, Ericson was under contract at MGM and made four films for the studio: Rhapsody (Charles Vidor, 1954) opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Vittorio Gassman, Green Fire (Andrew Marton, 1954), co-starring Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly, who had been in his class at the Academy. and the seminal Spencer Tracy Western Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) as a nervy hotel clerk.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 1809. Photo: M.G.M.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 601. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. John Ericson and Edmund Purdom in The Student Prince (Richard Thorpe, 1954).

Nude centrefold in Playgirl

During the next three decades, John Ericson worked as a free-lance actor. His wavy-haired good looks and athletic build were not lost on the industry. He co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck in Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957) and with Fred MacMurray in another Western, Day of the Badman (Harry Keller, 1958).

His career continued mostly on television. Ericson's frequent TV guest appearances included Rawhide (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963), The FBI (1965) and The Invaders (1967). He co-starred with Anne Francis in Honey West (1965), a short-lived series apparently modelled on the British series The Avengers (1961). It featured a crime-solving, judo-savvy lady detective (even wearing Diana Rigg-style jumpsuits) and her right-hand man. The show only lasted for 30 episodes, but has since gained a minor cult following.

For the big screen, he went to Italy and Spain. There he starred in the Peplum Io Semiramide / Slave Queen of Babylon (Primo Zeglio, 1963) about Semiramis, a queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Yvonne Furneaux). He also starred in the James Bond pastiche Agente S 03: Operazione Atlantide / Operation Atlantis (Domenico Paolella, 1965) and Spaghetti Westerns. In the U.S., he had leads in thrillers such as The Money Jungle (Francis D. Lyon, 1967) with Lola Albright, and Science Fiction B-graders like The Destructors (Francis D. Lyon, 1968) starring Richard Egan, and The Bamboo Saucer (Frank Telford, 1968), which was Dan Duryea's last film.

Ericson also starred as the titular 1930s Depression-era gangster in Pretty Boy Floyd (Herbert J. Leder, 1960). He appeared in the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) and posed for the nude centrefold in Playgirl magazine's January 1974 issue. On the stage, he played King Arthur to Kathryn Grayson's Guinevere in a 1967 production of the musical 'Camelot'. A reviewer commented that what Ericson lacked in the vocal department he more than made up for by a 'masterful performance'. His dramatic theatrical credits included 'Richard III', 'Mr. Roberts' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

In his spare time, John Ericson took up painting landscapes and still lifes. He was also a sculptor and a keen amateur photographer. Until he died of pneumonia in 2020, he resided in New Mexico with his second wife, Karen Huston, whom he married in 1974. With his first wife, Milly Ericson Courye, he had two children, Brett and Nicole. John Ericson was 93.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 709. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). John Ericson and Pier Angeli in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951).


Belgian postcard offered by RI-RI Demaret Chocolate, no. 1051. Photo: MGM. John Ericson and Pier Angeli in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951).

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

William Powell

William Powell (1892-1984) was an American actor whose career began in silent films. He is best known for the Thin Man film series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett, in which he starred opposite Myrna Loy. Powell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor a total of three times, for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947).


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes and other Godfrey Philips Associated brands, no. 2. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


Vintage card. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


British postcard by Art Photo, no. 102. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Myrna Loy and William Powell in After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936).


French postcard by Viny, no. 6. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


French postcard, no. 703. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


Italian postcard. Artwork: Giacomo Canestrari / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. William Powell and Myrna Loy in Double Wedding (1937).


Belgian collector card by Kwatta. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. William Powell in The Thin Man Goes Home (Richard Thorpe, 1944).

Thieves, blackmailers and bad husbands

William Horatio Powell was born in Pittsburgh in 1892. He was the only child of Nettie Manila (née Brady) and Horatio Warren Powell, who worked as an accountant. In 1907, young William moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School four years later. The family lived there, only a few blocks away from the Carpenters, whose daughter Harlean later also went to Hollywood under the name Jean Harlow, although she and William did not meet until they were both established film actors.

William always wanted to act. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Kansas, where he intended to study law, but after only a week there, he decided to leave the school and went to New York. He was 18 when he started studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) and graduated in 1912. He worked in some Vaudeville and stock companies and then went to Broadway, where he appeared in successful plays.

In 1922, he began a career in Hollywood with a small role as an evil henchman of Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (Albert Parker, 1922) with John Barrymore. He later performed as Francis I alongside Marion Davies as Mary Tudor in When Knighthood Was in Flower (Robert G. Vignola, 1922). The historic drama produced by William Randolph Hearst (through his Cosmopolitan Productions) was considered the most expensive film ever produced at the time. In 1924, William Powell signed a studio contract with Paramount Pictures and went on to star in numerous productions, including the now-lost 1926 premiere of The Great Gatsby (Herbert Brenon, 1926), starring Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson. In the silent era, he primarily played sinister characters such as thieves, blackmailers, and bad husbands. He finally attracted attention as Leo, the arrogant film director in Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928), alongside Emil Jannings.

The big success for Powell came with the advent of the talkies in the late 1920s, which also showcased his pleasant voice. In the crime mystery The Canary Murder Case (Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle, 1929), he portrayed Philo Vance, the amateur private detective best known from the novels of S.S. Van Dine, who investigates the death of "the Canary" (Louise Brooks). Powell filmed two sequels with Paramount, The Greene Murder Case (Frank Tuttle, 1929) and The Benson Murder Case (Frank Tuttle, 1930); as well as The Kennel Murder Case (Michael Curtiz, 1933) at rival studio Warner Bros.

It established him in more positive roles. Together with Kay Francis, Powell formed an on-screen pair in six films from 1930 to 1932. One of their most successful films together was the tender shipboard romance One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932). In 1931, he married actress Carole Lombard, whom he divorced again in 1933. However, they remained on good terms.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3381/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. William Powell in the comedy She's a Sheik (Clarence Badger, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3957/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. Powell was often to be seen in a white tie on film. An option from 1929 could be the film Pointed Heels (Edward Sutherland, 1929), also with Fay Wray and Phillips Holmes. All through the 1920s, Powell worked for Paramount, moving over to Warner in 1931.


British postcard by Milton, no. 57.B. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


British Real Photograph postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Sheila Terry and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Margaret Lindsay and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Margaret Lindsay and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


French postcard by Éditions et Publications cinématographiques (EPC), no. 113. Photo: MGM.

A wealthy amateur detective

In 1934, William Powell went to MGM, where he was teamed with Myrna Loy in Manhattan Melodrama (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934) alongside Clark Gable. Their next film together became a classic, the crime comedy The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934), based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. Powell and Loy co-starred as the wealthy amateur detective duo Nick and Nora Charles, who enjoy copious drinking and flirtatious banter. Their wire-haired fox terrier, Asta, was played by canine actor Skippy. Between 1934 and 1947, Powell and Loy appeared in 14 films together.

While Philo Vance had made Powell a star, Nick Charles made him famous. Powell received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934). The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humour. The film was such a box-office success that it spawned five sequels: After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936), Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939), Shadow of the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (Richard Thorpe, 1945) and Song of the Thin Man (Edward Buzzell, 1947).

In 1935, William Powell starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless (Victor Fleming, 1935), loosely based on the scandal of the 1931 marriage between torch singer Libby Holman and tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds, and his death by a gunshot wound to the head. A serious romance developed between the two stars. In 1936, they were reunited on screen in the screwball comedy Libelled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936), also with Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. Harlow and Powell got engaged, but Harlow became ill soon after and died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937, before they could marry. Powell starred in the Best Picture winner for 1936, The Great Ziegfeld (Robert Z. Leonard, 1936). Powell played the title role, and Myrna Loy appeared as Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke. He received his second Academy Award nomination for the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936) with his ex-wife, Carole Lombard. In March 1938, Powell was diagnosed with rectal cancer. His distress over Jean Harlow's death, as well as the cancer diagnosis, caused him to accept fewer acting roles.

Powell's career slowed considerably in the 1940s till his third Oscar nomination for his work in Life with Father (Michael Curtiz, 1947) with Irene Dunne and Elizabeth Taylor. He had a supporting part in the romantic comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953), starring Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall as three fashionable Manhattan models. His last role was in Mister Roberts (John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, 1955). He played "Doc" alongside Henry Fonda in the title role, James Cagney as the ship's perfectionist captain, and Jack Lemmon in his Oscar-winning performance as Ensign Pulver.

William Powell died of natural causes in Palm Springs in 1984 at the age of 91. He was married three times. His wives were Eileen Wilson (1915-1930), Carole Lombard (1931-1933) and Diana Lewis (1940-1984, his death). With Wilson, he had a son, television writer and producer William David Powell, born in 1925. After a period of ill health and depression, his son stabbed himself to death while taking a shower in 1968. He left a four-page goodbye letter to his father, with whom he was still very close. The last two sentences were revealed to the public: "Things aren't so good here. I'm going where it's better." Powell was buried at Cathedral City's Desert Memorial Park in Riverside County, California, where his father and his father's last wife, Diana Lewis, are also buried.


French postcard by E.C., Rueil-Malmaison, no. 556. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 392a. Photo: MGM.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 161. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. William Powell and Myrna Loy in Evelyn Prentice (William K. Howard, 1934).


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3782. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Myrna Loy and William Powell. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British hand-coloured postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 300. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). William Powell and Myrna Loy in Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 258, 1946. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard, no. AX-123. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.