Le roi du bagne (1913) and Les larmes du pardon (1914)

Last Sunday, we had a post about two early silent films by the German Messter Film company. Ivo Blom had collected two series of small collector cards by the Spanish editor Reclam Films for the film. In this post, we present two Reclam Films series for two early French films, Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (1913) and Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (1914), both produced by Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne and Gabriel Signoret are the stars in both films.

Le roi du bagne (1913)

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Stacia Napierkowska in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre in the foreground in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jean Dax, Gabrielle Robinne and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).

Crooked manoeuvres

The Pathé production Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913) had a remarkable cast with several leading early French film stars, including Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980) and the exotic and fascinating actress and dancer Stacia Napierkowska (1886-1945).

Gabriel Signoret plays Monsieur Fernand Pradier, an enriched trader. He gives the hand of his daughter Germaine (Gabrielle Robinne) to St.-Bris, a wealthy banker (René Alexandre). What he does not know is how St.-Bris made his fortune.

In fact, St.-Bris, then known as Marquis de Pont d'Anson, was once a crook and avoided prison only by miracle. To make matters worse, a former accomplice (Jean Dax) resurfaces and manages to lead him astray again. But Elise Duvernoir, a young typist (Stacia Napierkowska), discovers their crooked manoeuvres...

Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison was first distributed in France in 1913. The Spanish distribution title was El Rey del Presidio.

The ten-minute silent drama was produced by Charles Pathé and co-written by director René Leprince and Maurice Mahut.


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jean Dax, Gabriel Signoret, Gabrielle Robinne and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret and Gabrielle Robinne in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne, Stacia Napierkowska, Jean Dax and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).

Les larmes du pardon (1914)

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret and Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre and Gabrielle Robinne (far left) in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre and Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).

A passionate letter

IMDb dates Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness as 1919, but the film came out in France in 1914, five years earlier. In Spain, the film was released as Las Lagrimas del perdon.

Gabrielle Robinne, at the time at the peak of her film career, was again the leading lady. Her two co-stars of Le roi du bagne (1913), Gabriel Signoret and René Alexandre, both also returned. The film was again directed by René Leprince, now in co-direction with Ferdinand Zecca.

Dr. Meyret (Gabriel Signoret) is consumed by his profession, which he treats as a calling. He shuns the social obligations his wife, Élise Meyret (Gabrielle Robinne), so enjoys. She receives an invitation for that evening, but the doctor cannot attend.

She chooses a dress on the advice of her daughter, Yolande (Juliette Malherbe). The child is sad because her mother is not with them at the table. The father leaves for a consultation. At the party, Mrs. Meyret meets the Viscount d’Harsel (René Alexandre), who courts her. He invites her to a garden party hosted by his mother, and there, he manages to kiss Élise. She flees, afraid of what might follow. He writes her a passionate letter.

The doctor, who discovers the letter, banishes his wife. Shortly afterwards, Mme Meyret, after telling d’Harsel she no longer wishes to see him, rents a property next to her husband’s so she can see her daughter. The child, separated from her mother, wastes away. Mme Meyret manages to see the sick little girl by means of a ruse; she takes the place of the nun who is caring for the child. The doctor, recognising her, wants to drive her away again, but Yolande persuades her father to forgive her, and everything returns to normal.


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne (left) in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).

Sources: Sens critique (French) and IMDb.

Merna Kennedy

American actress Merna Kennedy (1908-1944) was best known for her debut as the lovely circus rider in Chaplin’s classic The Circus (1928). She acted in dozens of early sound films till she married Busby Berkeley.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2090/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4719/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Universal. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Paul Fejos, 1929).

An innocent and abused circus acrobat

Merna Kennedy was born Merna Kahler in 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. Her parents were Maud (née Reed) and John Kahler, a German-American butcher-turned-chiropractor. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to California, where she married a grocer two years later. She changed their name to Kennedy. At the outbreak of World War I, their mother prepped seven-year-old Merna and brother Melvin Merle ‘Bud’ to tour as a dancing and singing sibling act on the Orpheum and Pantages theatre circuits of Vaudeville.

At dance school in 1916, Merna became acquainted with Lita Grey, who, in 1924, became the second Mrs Chaplin. They remained friends throughout the time of Merna’s tours and Lita’s first few appearances as an extra for Charlie Chaplin. When Merle broke his leg, it ended the duo. Grey suggested silent films to Merna and sent her husband to see her in the musical comedy ‘All For You’ in Los Angeles.

Chaplin selected Merna as his leading lady for The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928). She had red hair and muscular legs due to being a dancer, and this helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider. The friendship with Lita Grey ended in 1927 when Grey found out about the affair between Merna and her husband.

Cliff Aliperti at Immortal Ephemera: “Production on The Circus was cursed by interruptions and distractions, including a fire that blazed through the studio and Chaplin’s divorce from Lita Grey, who listed Merna among a handful of well-known Hollywood actresses whom she accused her husband of having an affair. The gossip columns showed no mercy despite Merna’s insistence that she was already involved with actor James Hall by this time.”

In The Circus, the Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus. Kennedy played the owner's lovely stepdaughter, circus rider Merna, who is abused by her father. Bethany Cox at IMDb: “The Circus, while it is very funny, is also very sweet and beautiful. It looks lovely and has a beautiful score. I also loved the recurring despondent theme of love, which provided The Circus's more touching moments, but there are also some truly brilliant slapstick set-pieces, especially when Chaplin walks a tightrope with falling trousers and a clinging monkey, while the chase through the hall of mirrors and the scene in the lion's cage are also inspired.”


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 90/3, 1925-1935. Photo: United Artists. Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1502/1, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in her costume of The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).

The wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors

The Circus was a troubled production, but it did well at the box office. For a couple of years, Merna Kennedy starred in some notable films. The first was the all-talkie Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929) in which she co-starred opposite Glenn Tryon and Evelyn Brent. Cliff Aliperti: “While Broadway wasn’t the smash it was on, ahem, Broadway, where it ran over 600 performances, it was a success, mostly because of innovative new equipment and director Fejös’s skilful technique. That said, Broadway didn’t do much for Merna Kennedy, who’s stuck in the thankless part of the sugary ingenue that the lead hoofer tries to win back from the nefarious gangster. For all of its pretty camera work, Broadway’s divide is a bit sharp for my tastes: the spectacularly filmed musical numbers more or less interrupt a static and overlong backstage mob story.”

Universal began teaming her with her Broadway leading man, Glenn Tryon, and the two can also be seen together for a brief few moments in Merna’s third most impressive credit, King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson, Walter Lantz, 1930), with Paul Whiteman. She appeared in three additional films opposite Tryon at Universal before moving on to the wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors.

By 1932, she was playing leads in such mediocre films as the Western Ghost Valley (Ted Allen, 1932) and the Gangster film The Big Chance (Albert Herman, 1933). She appeared with Pat O’Brien and Gloria Stuart in the crime drama Laughter in Hell (Edward L. Cahn, 1933) and with James Cagney and Bette Davis in the screwball comedy Jimmy the Gent (Michael Curtiz, 1934) as Jitters, a wisecracking secretary. Other interesting pictures included Son of a Sailor (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with Joe E. Brown, and Wonder Bar (Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley, 1934) with Al Jolson. The latter was one of Warner's biggest hits of the year.

Merna Kennedy retired from acting in 1934 to marry choreographer/director Busby Berkeley, after a total of 28 films. Studio executive Jack Warner was one of the witnesses. It was rumoured that Busby was a maternal uncle and that his mother did not see the marriage as fit for her son. The marriage broke down because of ‘mental abuse’. The couple divorced in 1936. Her alimony settlement from Berkeley amounted to $7,500 to be paid at a rate of $100 a week.

In 1944, she married in Las Vegas Master Sergeant Forrest Brayton, for whom she is said to have waited three years while he served in the Pacific. Only four days later, she died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. She was just 36. She is buried with her four-year-old older brother, Bud Kennedy, who died in 1950, in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Merna Kennedy will be remembered as the innocent and abused circus acrobat whom Chaplin falls for in The Circus.


French poster postcard by Editions ZREIK, Paris, no. 3. Belgian poster by Delko, Anvers, for Universal Pictures. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929). The poster was taken from 'Souvenirs d'Hollywood' by Ed. Alternatives, 1986.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition (CE), Paris, no. 513. Photo: United Artists.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 24.

Sources: Cliff Aliperti (Immortal Ephemera), Bethany Cox (IMDb), Trav S.D. (Travalanche), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English), and IMDb.

Greta Nissen

Norwegian-American Greta Nissen (1906–1988) was a blonde bombshell who appeared in more than 30 films in Denmark, the United States and England. Unfortunately, she is now most famous for a role which was re-shot with another actress.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 878. Photo: Paramount-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3071/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount / FaNaMet.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 283. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3081/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3173/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


Dutch Postcard, no. 458. Photo: Hal Payfe / Fox Film.


British postcard. Photo: British International Pictures (BIP).

Pat & Patachon

Grethe Rüzt-Nissen was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1906 (some sources say 1905). She was the daughter of Carl Andreas Frantz Nissen and Agnes Magdalene Larsen. After her parents divorced, her mother took her to Copenhagen, Denmark,

In 1911, her mother managed to get Grethe as a student at the Det Kongelige Teater's (Royal Theatre) student school, after having 'made' her a year older. Grethe made her stage début as a member of the corps de ballet at the Royal Theatre. Some years later, when the famous choreographer and dancer Mikhail Fokin (or Michel Fokine) came to Denmark after the Russian Revolution, he invited her to come to Paris, and she studied with him from 1918 to 1919. In 1922, she performed a series of acclaimed Fokine evenings in Norway.

Grethe made her screen début in the Danish comedies Daarskab, Dyd og Driverter / Folly, Virtue and Idler (Lau Lauritzen, 1924), followed by Lille Lise let-paa-taa / The Little Dancer (Lau Lauritzen, 1924), two vehicles for the comedy team of Fy og Bi, aka Pat & Patachon. These two comedies would be her only films in Scandinavia.

In 1924, she went to New York with a Danish ballet troupe, and there the blonde looker received an offer to appear on Broadway in George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's lavish revue 'Beggar on Horseback'. She changed her name to Greta Nissen. Later, she worked for the famed Flo Ziegfield in the 1926 production of 'No Foolin'.

Only 19 years old, she was discovered by Jesse L. Lasky of Paramount Pictures, who signed her to a contract. Making her American screen debut as Greta Nissen in In the Name of Love (Howard Higgin, 1925) with Ricardo Cortez and Wallace Beery, Nissen was singled out by critic Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times, who found her 'an appealing and clever actress with a striking personality'.


Swedish postcard by Eneret Mittet & Co, no. 13. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 283. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 328. Greta Nissen in Blind Alleys (Frank Tuttle, 1927).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 382. Greta Nissen in In the Name of Love (Howard Higgin, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 452. Photo: Films Paramount. Publicity still for Lost: A Wife (William C. de Mille, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 736. Photo: SAI Films Paramount, Roma, Greta Nissen perhaps as the seductive high priest Tisha in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 458. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still for The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925) with William Collier. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 740. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still for The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Italian postcard by Casa Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2525. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926).


Italian postcard by Cinema-Illustrazione, Milano, Series 1, no. 22. Photo: Fox Film. Cinema Illustrazione was an Italian popular film journal that existed between 1926 and 1939.

Hell's Angels

Greta Nissen played in several sophisticated comedies with Adolphe Menjou, like The Wanderer( Raoul Walsh, 1925), also with William Collier and Blonde or Brunette (Richard Rosson, 1927).

She became an exotic seductress in such costume extravaganzas as The Lady of the Harem (Raoul Walsh, 1926) and Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928) opposite Charles Farrell.

MGM, meanwhile, borrowed her for The Love Thief (John McDermott, 1926), to replace Greta Garbo. Among her other successful potboilers were Lost: A Wife (William C. de Mille, 1925), The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926) and The Popular Sin (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926).

In 1927, Nissen was the original choice as the leading lady of Hell's Angels (1930), Howard Hughes' stunt-flying extravaganza set during World War I. This epic film could have made her a major contender.

Filming was well underway when it was decided that the film would be remade with sound. Unfortunately, Greta was replaced because of her heavy Norwegian accent. Nissen had made $2500 a week when filming Hell's Angels, and her replacement, Jean Harlow, worked for only $250. The film shot Harlow to stardom, and Nissen lost much work due to the advent of sound films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1760/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1829/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2029/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet. Greta Nissen in The Popular Sin (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3575/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3575/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3837/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.


British postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3917/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928) with Charles Farrell.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5824/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Fox.

B-films and quota quickies

Rebounding somewhat with a contract from Fox, Greta Nissen eventually proved that her accent could easily have been turned into an asset, but the fallout from the Hell's Angels debacle followed her for the remainder of her film career.

She starred or co-starred in a series of B-films which included the lame Women of All Nations (Raoul Walsh, 1931), the Will Rogers comedy Ambassador Bill (Sam Taylor, 1931), the mystery drama The Circus Queen Murder (Roy William Neill, 1933) again opposite Adolphe Menjou, and the George O'Brien Western Life in the Raw (Louis King, 1933).

In 1933, she moved to England, where she appeared in a few ‘quota quickies’, including On Secret Service (Arthur B. Woods, 1933) and Honours Easy (Herbert Brenon, 1935) with Margaret Lockwood.

In 1934, she also appeared at the Palace Theatre in London in the original version of Agnes de Mille's ballet Three Virgins and a Devil, performed in the revue 'Why Not Tonight?' After the Spy film Cafe Colette (Paul L. Stein, 1937), she retired and returned to the US.

Divorced from former Fox contract star Weldon Heyburn, Nissen married in 1941 industrialist Stuart Eckert, and she lived quietly in California. Greta Nissen died at home in Montecito, California, of Parkinson's disease in 1988. She was 82. Her husband said she still received fan letters. Greta had one son, Tor Bruce Nissen Eckert, who in 2005 gave his large collection of Greta Nissen Memorabilia to the Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Ottestad, Norway.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 358/1. Photo: Paramount-Film.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 358/3. Photo: Paramount Film. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 137. Photo: Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5035. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5037. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 184. Photo: Fox.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 264.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 264b.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Radio / RKO. Phil Harris, Chick Chandler and probably Greta Nissen in Melody Cruise (Mark Sandrich, 1933). Melody Cruise is a pre-Code romantic musical comedy about a bachelor millionaire, Alan Chandler (Phil Harris), hunted by women aboard a cruise liner. Charles Ruggles plays his best friend and womaniser, Pete. Greta Nissen plays Elsa von Rader (Alan's mundane friend). Chick Chandler plays the steward Hickey, whom Pete has bribed to prevent Alan from marrying. Helen Mack is Laurie Marlowe (Alan's new friend). Melody Cruise was Sandrich's breakthrough as a feature filmmaker.


British card in the Keepin Series by Radio Hair Grips. Photo: BIP (British International Pictures Limited). Greta Nissen and Ivan Samson in Honours Easy (Herbert Brenon, 1935). Caption: Radio Hair Grips for long or short waves.


Italian postcard in the series 'Sport e Spettacolo - I divi più amati' by Instituto Geografico de Agostini S.p.A., Novara, 1996. Reprint of an Italian postcard by Casa Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2526. Photo: Films Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926), released in Italy as La principessa bionda (The Blonde Princess).

Sources: Hans Otto Christian Arent (Store Norske Lexikon - Norwegian), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Allure, Pat M. Ryan (Dance Chronicle), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.