Konstantin Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre

Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938) was an outstanding Russian character actor and one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. He founded the legendary Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and originated 'method acting'. Stanislavski's System of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique was spread over the world by his students, including Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski. This month, EFSP will focus every Friday on Stanislavski and his innovative stage company.


Russian postcard. Konstantin Stanislavski as Lieutenant-colonel Aleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin in 'Три сeстры/Tri sestry/Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. The play, written in 1900, was first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard, no. 5 C. Konstantin Stanislavski as Gaiev in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov, Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard, no. 9 S. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky. Konstantin Stanislavski as Verchinine in 'Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov, Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.

An actor of feeling

Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski (Константи́н Серге́евич Станисла́вский) (1863–1938) was a Russian actor and theatre director. Especially in the period after World War II, his eponymous Stanislavsky method, or simply 'method acting', had a pervasive influence on the American theatre and cinema.

Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour requiring dedication, discipline and integrity. Throughout his life, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection. His development of a theorised praxis — in which practice is used as a mode of inquiry and theory as a catalyst for creative development — identifies him as one of the great modern theatre practitioners.

His work was as important to the development of socialist realism in the Soviet Union as it was to that of psychological realism in the United States. It draws on a wide range of influences and ideas, including his study of the modernist and avant-garde developments of his time (naturalism, symbolism and Meyerhold's constructivism), Russian formalism, Yoga, Pavlovian behavioural psychology, James-Lange (via Ribot) psychophysiology and the aesthetics of Pushkin, Gogol, and Tolstoy.

Stanislavski described his approach as 'spiritual Realism'. He wrote several works, including 'An Actor Prepares', 'An Actor's Work on a Role', and his autobiography, 'My Life in Art'. In 1885, Stanislavski briefly studied at the Moscow Theatre School, where students were encouraged to mimic the theatrical tricks and conventions of their tutors. Disappointed by this approach, he left after little more than two weeks. Instead, he devoted particular attention to the performances of the Maly Theatre, the home of psychological realism in Russia.

Psychological realism had been developed here by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Shchepkin. Shchepkin was the father of Russian realistic acting who, in 1848, promoted the idea of an 'actor of feeling.' This actor would 'become the character' and identify with his thoughts and feelings: he would "walk, talk, think, feel, cry, laugh as the author wants him to."


Russian postcard, no. 8572. Photo: publicity still for the Moscow Art Theatre production of 'The Lower Depths'(1902) by Maxim Gorky, with Ivan Moskvin as Luka and Vasili Kachalov as the Baron. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Hamlet in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of 'Hamlet' (1911–1912). Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard, no. 7 N. Vasily Kachalov as The Baron in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of The Lower Depths (1902) by Maxim Gorky. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Anathema in the prologue in The Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) production of Anathema (1909) by Leonid Andreev. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The principle of opposites

By the age of twenty-five, Konstantin Stanislavski was well known as an amateur actor. He made a proposal to Fyodor Sollogub and theatre director Alexander Fedotov to establish a society that would unite amateur and professional actors and artists. They founded in 1888 The Society of Art and Literature. Fedotov became the head of the dramatic section, Komissarzhevski was the head of the operatic and musical section, while Sollogub was appointed the head of the graphic arts section. The drama and opera sections each had a school.

In 1889 in the society's production of Aleksey Pisemsky's historical play 'Men Above The Law', Stanislavski discovered his 'principle of opposites,' as expressed in his aphoristic advice to the actor: "When you play a good man, try to find out where he is bad, and when you play a villain, try to find where he is good." Stanislavski insisted that the actors learnt their parts thoroughly, almost entirely removing the prompter from the Society's productions.

It was Stanislavski's historic meeting with playwright Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1897, however, that would create the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). In 1898, Stanislavski co-directed with Nemirovich the first of his productions of the work of Anton Chekhov. The MAT production of 'The Seagull' was a crucial milestone for the fledgling company that has been described as "one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama."

Stanislavski went on to direct the successful premières of Chekhov's other major plays: 'Uncle Vanya' in 1899, 'Three Sisters' in 1901, and 'The Cherry Orchard' in 1904. Stanislavski's encounter with Chekhov's drama proved crucial to the creative development of both men. His ensemble approach and attention to the psychological realities of its characters revived Chekhov's interest in writing for the stage, while Chekhov's unwillingness to explain or expand on the text forced Stanislavski to dig beneath its surface in ways that were new in theatre.

Stanislavski had different pupils during each of the phases of discovering and experimenting with his 'system' of acting. Two of his former students, Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya, founded the American Laboratory Theatre in 1925. One of their students, Lee Strasberg, went on to co-found the Group Theatre (1931–1940) with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, which was the first American acting company to put Stanislavski's initial discoveries into practice. Clurman and Strasberg had a profound influence on American acting, both on stage and film, as did Stella Adler, who was also part of the Group Theatre and who had studied briefly with Stanislavski and quarrelled with Strasberg's approach to the work. Sanford Meisner, another Group member, joined with Adler in opposing Strasberg's approach. This conflict was the partial cause of the Group Theatre's dissolution. After the Group broke up, Strasberg, Adler and Meisner each went on to found their own acting studios, which trained many of the most prominent actors in American theatre and film.


German postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Baron in Maxim Gorky's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Russian film and stage actor Vasily Kachalov (1875-1948) was one of Konstantin Stanislavsky's best-known performers. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. He also appeared in four films.


German postcard. Mariya Germanova as Olga in 'Three Sisters', by Anton Chekhov. Caption: Guest performances by the Moscow Art Theatre (in Germany, 1920s).

Mariya Germanova (1884–1940) was known for such films as Anna Karenina (1914) and Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923). In 1901, she enrolled in the just-opened Moscow Art Theatre Drama School and a year later joined the Moscow Art Theatre. Debuting in Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' in 1903, she got positive reviews in Maxim Gorky's 'Children of the Sun' (1905), in Griboyedov's 'Woe from Wit', and in Henrik Ibsen's 'Brand' (both 1906).

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko relied mostly upon her stage persona in his stage experiments like 'Boris Godunov' by Alexander Pushkin (1907), 'Anathema' by Leonid Andreyev (1909), 'The Karamazov Brothers' by Dostoyevsky (1910), and Leo Tolstoy's 'The Living Corpse' (1911). In the late 1920s, she started working as a theatre director herself. In 1929, she went to the US, and that year she succeeded Richard Boleslawski as the head of the American Laboratory Theatre, where she produced Chekhov's 'Three Sisters'. The Lab, as it was known, disbanded in 1933, but proved to be an important link between Stanislavski and the New York Group Theatre.



French postcard. Alexander Vishnevsky as A Tartar in Maxim Gorki's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Aleksandr Leonid Vishnevsky (1861-1943) was one of the founding members of the Moscow Art Theatre. Vishnevsky studied at the Taganrog gymnasium, where he befriended the young Anton Chekhov. From 1883 he took part in the performances of the Taganrog Music and Drama Society. Later, he acted in the theatres of Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, Odessa, and Saratov, where he was a jeune premier.

In 1898, he joined the troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). On the opening night of the MAT, Vishnevsky played the part of Boris Godunov in the play 'Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich' by Alexei Tolstoy. In 1899, he played Godunov again in Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan the Terrible'. Vishnevsky was the first to play the title role in Chekhov's play 'Uncle Vanya' at the MAT. Vishnevsky acted in three films: Cagliostro (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1918), Pobeda zhenshchiny (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1927), and the comedy Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena / Holiday of St. Jorgen (Yakov Protazanov, Porfiri Podobed, 1930).

French postcard, no. 2 C. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky. Alla Tarassova as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Alla Tarassova (1898-1973) started to play in productions of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1916. She made a mark already in 1916 as a Boyar woman in 'Tsar Fedor Ioannovich' by Alexander Tolstoy. During the Civil War, she toured from 1919 to 1922 with the Kachalov Group. It was here she broke through as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard', Verushka in 'Autumn Violins', The Maid in 'Three Sisters', and Ophelia in 'Hamlet'. She toured Europe and the US in 1922-1924, where she also lived for a while. From 1923 till 1971, Tarassova was a regular of the Moscow Art Theatre, playing, e.g. Nastya in 'The Lower Depths' by Gorki in 1923. Together with many of the Moscow Art Theatre group, Tarassova played in 1923 in the classic German Expressionist Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923). Tarassova performed the sister of the title character, played by Gregori Chmara. Back in the Soviet Union, she acted as Mary in Kto ty takoy? / Who Are You (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1927; not listed in IMDb) and had the lead in the silent film Vasilisina pobeda (Leonid Molchanov, 1928).

In the 1930s, Alla Tarassova acted in various Russian films. She starred as Katerina Petrovna Kabanova in Groza / The Storm (Vladimir Petrov, 1933), awarded at the 1934 Venice film festival. She also had a lead in Dreamers / The Rise of Man, or Is Russia in the Dark? (David Marian, 1934; not listed in IMDb). In the two-part biopic Пётр Первый / Peter the Great (1937-1938), she played Yekaterina/ Catherine, a peasant girl who will become the powerful Tsarina Catherine in part II. In 1940, Tarassova starred in Бабы / Baby (Vladimir Batalov, 1940). In 1952, she repeated her former stage role of Nastya in the film adaptation of 'The Lower Depths', Na dne (Andrey Frolov, 1952), a faithful adaptation of Stanislavski's direction of the play in the late 1930s. In 1953, Tarassova played the title role in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a recording of the stage performance by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Tatyana Lukashevich.



French postcard. 6 C. Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin in Anton Chekhov's play 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Leonid Mironovich Leonidov (1873-1941) worked at the Moscow Art Theatre from 1903. Stanislavski called Leonidov "the only Russian tragic actor." His roles included Dmitri Karamazov, Othello, and Lopakhin in 'The Cherry Orchard'. In the late 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, Leonidov also appeared in several films. He started in the propaganda film Khleb / Bread (Richard Boleslawski, Boris Sushkevich, 1918) with Olga Baclanova and Boleslawski himself, followed by Zheleznaya pyata / The Iron Heel (Vladimir Gardin, 1919) with Aleksandra Khokhlova and based on a Jack London novel; and Pyotr i Alexei (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1919) in which he had the lead as Tsar Peter the Great.

In 1926, Leonidov returned to the sets, again as tsar, but now as Ivan the Terrible in the Sovkino production Krylya kholopa / The Wings of a Serf (Yuri Tarich, 1926), which was also shown in the West. In 192,8 he played a double leading role in Yego prevoskhoditelstvo / His Excellency (Grigoriy Roshal, 1928), about a rabbi who in 1902 attempts to murder a governor who had workers flogged for a May-Day rally. Leonidov played both the rabbi and the governor. In the same year, 1928, Leonidov also had the lead in the Mezhrabpomfilm production V gorod vkhodit' nelzya (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1928). In the sound era, Leonidov acted in two Russian films, as a munition manufacturer in the political pamphlet against the fascists, Marionetki / The Marionettes (Yakov Protazanov, Porfiri Podobed, 1934) and as the title character in Gobzek (Konstantin Eggert, 1937).



French postcard, no. 8 C. Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik in Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

Vladimir Fyodorovich Gribunin (1873-1933) learned drama at the Maly Theatre Drama college in the class of Mikhail Sadovsky, then joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898, with which he stayed until his death in 1933. Critically lauded were his performances as Nikita in Leo Tolstoy's 'Power of Darkness', Simeonov-Pishchik in Anton Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard' and Kuroslepov in the 1926 production of Alexander Ostrovsky's 'An Ardent Heart'. The latter is considered to be the high point of his artistic career. He was cast in three early Soviet films: Алёшина дудка / Alyosha's Pipe (Vladimir Kasyanov, 1919), Трое / Threesome (Michael Narokov, 1919) and Хромой барин / Limping Landlord (Vladimir Kasyanov, 1920).


French postcard, no. 9 C. Ivan Moskvin as Yepikhodov in Anton Chekhov's play 'The Cherry Orchard', Moscow Art Theatre.

The career of Ivan Moskvin (1874-1946) is closely identified with the Moscow Art Theatre, of which he became director in 1943. In 1898, he was invited by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko to join the newly formed MAT, and he appeared opposite Olga Knipper in the title role of the theatre’s first production, 'Czar Fyodor Ioannovich' (1898), by Aleksey Tolstoy. He went on to create the role of Luka in Maxim Gorky’s 'The Lower Depths' (1902) and Epikhodoff in Anton Chekhov’s 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904).

The international acclaim Moskvin won when touring Europe and the United States (1919–1924) was reinforced in later years by his work in Soviet films that were distributed worldwide. Among Moskvin’s film roles were, e.g. the Russian serf in the Tolstoy adaptation Polikushka (Alexander Sanin, 1922), the government clerk in the Chekhov adaptation Chiny i lyudi / Ranks and People (Mikhail Doller, Yakov Protazanov, 1929), and the title role in the Pushkin adaptation Kollezhskiy registrator / The Station Master (Ivan Moskvin himself with Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1925), also with Vera Malinovskaya. Moskvin was a much-respected teacher with three generations of Moscow Art Theatre actors, and he continued to appear in the theatre’s productions through 1942, when he played a principal role in N.F. Pogodin’s 'Kremlin Chimes'.



French postcard, no. 9 N. Ivan Moskvin as Luka in Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths, Moscow Art Theatre.


French postcard, no. 11 L. Faina Shevchenko as A Boyar Woman in Aleksey Tolstoy's 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich', Moscow Art Theatre.

Faina Vasilyevna Shevchenko, aka Faïna Chevtchenko (1893-1971), was the People's Artist of the USSR (1948) and the recipient of several high-profile state awards, such as the Order of Lenin in 1938, and twice the Stalin Prize laureate (1943, 1946). She was one of the leading actresses of the Moscow Art Theatre, where she debuted in 1914 and stayed until 1959. Shevchenko excelled in Russian drama classics and was best remembered for her roles in the plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, including 'Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man' (1920), 'An Ardent Heart' (1926), 'The Storm' (1934), 'The Last Victim' (1944) and 'The Forest' (1948), as well as plays by Maxim Gorky, including 'The Lower Depths' (1916). She was also a successful singer of folk songs.

Shevchenko was cast in seven sound films, including the Georgian spoken David Guramishvili (Nikoloz Sanishvili, Joseb Tumanishvili, 1946), where she played the Russian Empress, The Composer Glinka (Grigoriy Aleksandrov, 1952), where she was Mme Ivanovich, and The Lower Depths (Andrey Frolov, 1952). "Dazzlingly simple, vivid, filled to the brim with life, endowed with huge temperament and open heart," was how the theatre historian Pavel Markov described her in his book of memoirs. Shevchenko was said to be the artist Boris Kustodiev's favourite model and, as a 21-year-old, sat nude for his The Beauty sessions. This daring venture caused scandal and almost cost Shevchenko her place in the troupe.


French postcard, no. 16 N. Photo A. Gubtschewsky, Berlin. Olga Knipper-Chekhova as Nastia in Maxim Gorky's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Olga Leonárdovna Knipper-Chekhova (1868-1959) was a Russian actress. . She was one of the 39 members of the Moscow Art Theatre when Konstantin Stanislavski formed it in 1898. She played the role of Arkadyina in 'The Seagull' (1898) and was the first person to star as Masha in 'Three Sisters' (1901) and Madame Ranévskaya in 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904). In 1901, Knipper married Antón Chékhov, the author of these stageplays, but the wedding was almost done in secret. She added the surname of the writer to her father's name. Three years later, in 1904, Chekhov would die of tuberculosis.

In 1919, Olga Knipper fled the famine with her company by moving first to Kharkiv, then the Crimea, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia, before returning to the Soviet Union in 1922. She then went on an official stage tour to France and the United States. At her return, she passed Germany, where her niece Olga was starting a career in silent cinema. Olga Knipper herself played in three films, the silent film Plenniki morya / Prisoners of the Sea (Mikhail Verner, 1929), Zavtra nochyu / Tomorrow Night (Ilya Kravchunovsky, 1930), and Mastera stseny (Vladimir Yurenev, 1947), in which she reprised her part of Madame Ranévskaya. Knipper continued a successful stage career with the Moscow Art Theatre. She played the role of Ranévskaya again in 1943 to celebrate the three hundredth representation of 'The Cherry Orchard'.



French postcard, no. 19 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin. Ivan Moskvin as Tsar Fyodor in Aleksey Tolstoy's 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich', Moscow Art Theatre.



French postcard, no. 19 N. Barbara Bulgakova as Natasha in Maxim Gorki's 'The Lower Depths', Moscow Art Theatre.

Barbara Bulgakova, aka Barbara Bulgakov (c. 1898-197was 7) the wife of actor, stage and film director Leo Bulgakov. Both were regulars from the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) from an early date. As Varvara Bulgakova, she had her first film part in Polikushka (1922), starring Moscow Art Theatre actor Ivan Moskvin. The Bulgakovs were part of the MAT troupe that officially toured Europe and the United States in the early 1920s.

When the troupe returned to Russia, Bulgakov and his wife remained in the US. They started to act in shows on Broadway, which Leo Bulgakov partly also produced himself, including classic Russian plays such as 'The Seagull', 'The Lower Depths', etc. He also directed and acted in various films. Barbara acted with her husband in Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, Laslo Benedek, 1944). After the death of her husband in 1948, she also acted in a few TV plays.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Forse che sì, forse che no (1921)

The Italian silent film drama Forse che sì, forse che no / Maybe Yes, Maybe No (1921) was based on Gabriele d'Annunzio's eponymous 1910 novel. For Medusa Film, French director Gaston Ravel directed Maria Carmi and Ettore Piergiovanni in this literary adaptation. It was the only film in which the two actors acted together, and Carmi's final film. Forse che sì, forse che no was distributed by the Unione Cinematografica Italiana.


Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 2008. Maria Carmi and Ettore Piergiovanni in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 35. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Maria Carmi as Isabella Inghirami in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921).

A passionate and fatal love quartet

In the silent film drama Forse che sí, forse che no (1921), the noble Paolo Tarsis (Ettore Piergiovanni) is passionately in love with Isabella Inghirami (Maria Carmi).

Paolo understands the change of time, and instead of taking refuge in the current of decadence, he rides the new fashion of cars, automobiles and aeroplanes, partly embracing the current of futurism.

However, happiness does not last, because Isabella secretly betrays him with her brother Aldo (Giorgio Fini), reproaching Paolo for his betrayals with Vannina, Isabella's younger sister (Eugenia Masetti), who is madly in love with Paolo.

When the knots come to a head, Vanina goes to Paolo to reveal the relationship between her brother and her older sister. Paolo, furious, awaits the arrival of Isabella, on whom he unleashes his anger, beating and insulting her. Vanina commits suicide out of desperation.

Isabella, before so self-assured and determined, has become so maddened that her father and stepmother lock her up in an institution. Paolo, unable to help her, also attempts suicide with a desperate action, to arrive with his plane in Sardinia and return to Italy. The enterprise succeeds, and Paolo is hailed as a hero.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, unnumbered. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Maria Carmi in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, unnumbered. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Maria Carmi as Isabella Inghirami in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921). Aldo (Giorgio Fini) spies upon Isabella, while Vanna (Eugenia Masetti) confronts her elder sister.

Ferocious opposition

Director Gaston Ravel based Forse che sì, forse che no (1921) on Gabriele d'Annunzio's eponymous novel from 1910. D'Annunzio had set his novel in Mantua, in Palazzo Gonzaga, of which the inscription, translated as "Maybe Yes, Maybe No", inspired him for the title.

Earlier, the novel had been adapted into a play and an earlier film version, Forse che sì, forse che no (1916), directed by Mario Gargiulo, with Tina Xeo in the lead.

Parts of the novel - such as in the incestuous relationship between sister and brother - would later again be used by Luchino Visconti for his film Vaghe stelle dell'orsa / Sandra (1965), starring Claudia Cardinale, Michael Craig and Jean Sorel.

Ravel's film version, Forse che sì, forse che no, had its premiere in Rome on 2 December 1921. The film wasn't liked by the Italian press (some thought it too decadent, others too sweet and unfaithful to D'Annunzio) nor by the Italian audience. The censor's suppression of intertitles at the epilogue surely didn't help the understanding of the film.

Star Maria Carmi encountered so much ferocious opposition towards her appearance in this film that she withdrew from the cinema. She returned to the stage, where she interpreted, in the following years, plays by Luigi Pirandello and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. In 1923, she moved to the United States, where Carmi and her husband, Georges V. Matchabelli, co-founded the now-famous perfume company Prince Matchabelli in 1926.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, unnumbered. Photo: Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Maria Carmi and Ettore Piergiovanni as Isabella Inghirami and Paolo Tarsis in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921). The maddened Isabella does not understand Paolo's pleas anymore.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, unnumbered. Photo: Medus Film / Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Maria Carmi as Isabella Inghirami in Forse che sì, forse che no (Gaston Ravel, 1921). Caption: Isabella durante la sua pazzia (Isabella during her madness). The man on the right could be Giorgio Fini as Isabella's brother Aldo, who is in love with his own sister, and here tries to steal her engagement ring.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens (1938) is an American actress and traditional pop singer. She began her career in 1957, making her feature film debut in Young and Dangerous, before releasing her debut album, 'Concetta', the following year. In 1959, Stevens gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of Cricket Blake on the TV series Hawaiian Eye. Stevens continued to appear in film and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s.


Spanish postcard by VyA, no. 126. Photo: Warner Bros. Connie Stevens and Grant Williams in Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961).


West German postcard nu Krüger, no. 902 / 238. Connie Stevens and Gary Clarke in the teen-oriented sports car club and motorcycle gang film Dragstrip Riot (David Bradley, 1958).

Young and dangerous

Connie Stevens was born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, to a family of musicians. She was immersed in the world of entertainment from a young age.

After moving to Los Angeles at age 15, she began her career as a movie extra and singer in various groups, including The Foremost and The Three Debs.

Her feature film debut came in Young and Dangerous (Arthur Dreifuss, 1957), and she co-starred in more mediocre teen dramas such as Eighteen and Anxious (Joe Parker, 1957), The Party Crashers (Bernard Girard, 1958) with Bobby Driscoll, and Dragstrip Riot (David Bradley, 1958) with Gary Clarke and Fay Wray.

Then Connie Stevens caught the eye of Jerry Lewis, who cast her in a supporting role in the musical comedy Rock-A-Bye Baby (Frank Tashlin, 1958).

These early roles paved the way for a contract with Warner Bros., the studio that would propel her to stardom and establish her as a prominent teen idol in American pop culture.


Vintage postcard.

A resourceful photographer and singer at a Honolulu detective agency

Connie Stevens is now best known for her work in television and music. Her most iconic role was that of Cricket Blake, a resourceful photographer and singer at a Honolulu detective agency, in the series Hawaiian Eye, which aired from 1959 to 1963.

The show made her a household name and provided a platform for her burgeoning singing career. A duet with fellow Warner Bros. star Edd Byrnes, 'Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)', became a major pop hit, reaching number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1959.

She achieved even greater solo success with her single 'Sixteen Reasons' (1960), which soared to number 3 on the US charts and number 9 in the UK, becoming her signature song.

Her albums, such as 'Concetta' (1958) and 'Connie Stevens as Cricket in the Warner Bros. Series Hawaiian Eye' (1960), further showcased her vocal talents and solidified her place in the music industry.

Throughout the 1960s, she continued to appear in films for the studio, often opposite heartthrob Troy Donahue, including the dramatic Parrish (Delmer Daves, 1961), where she played a rural girl, and the title role as an unwed mother in Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961).


West German postcard nu Krüger, no. 902 / 239. Connie Stevens and Gary Clarke in Dragstrip Riot (David Bradley, 1958).

Forever Spring

After Hawaiian Eye ended, Connie Stevens starred in another sitcom, Wendy and Me (George Burns, 1964–1965), where she played the title character opposite George Burns, who also produced the show.

Her film career continued with a variety of roles in the 1960s and 1970s, including the lead in the Horror film Two on a Guillotine (William Conrad, 1965), a featured part in the crime drama The Grissom Gang (Robert Aldrich, 1971) and the title role in the crime thriller Scorchy (Howard Avedis, 1976).

In 1969, she toured with the Bob Hope USO shows to entertain American troops overseas. Stevens later launched a cosmetics line, 'Forever Spring', which brought her significant financial success in the 1990s.

There was also innocuous fun in such sporadic films as Grease 2 (Patricia Birch, 1982), starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Back to the Beach (Lyndall Hobbs, 1987) with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Stevens also ventured behind the camera, writing, producing, and directing the feature film Saving Grace B. Jones (Connie Stevens, 2009), a project based partly on her own childhood experiences.

In recent years, after suffering a stroke in 2016, she has maintained a lower profile, though she has made occasional public appearances and was involved in the film By the Rivers of Babylon (Albert Sandoval, 2025). Connie Stevens has two daughters, actresses Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher, from her second marriage to singer Eddie Fisher.


Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 127. Photo: Warner Bros. Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens in Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961).


American postcard by Mike Roberts Color Production, Berkeley, California, no. SC12345. Connie Stevens appeared at John Ascuegel's Nugget, Sparks (East Reno), Nevada. Stevens performed here with Sammy King and musical conductor Mitchell Ayres, from 21 August till 3 September, year unknown.

Sources: Greg Prato (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Lucien Muratore

Lucien Muratore (1876–1954) was a French operatic tenor who also acted on stage, and he appeared in the 1910s in American and Italian silent films opposite his then-wife, Lina Cavalieri. In the 1930s, he also acted in four French sound films. His first sound film was Le chanteur inconnu / The Unknown Singer (Victor Tourjansky, 1931), made for Les Films Osso.


French postcard by F.C. & Cie., no. 251. Photo: Boyer & Bert, Paris. Lucien Muratore in 'Faust'.


French postcard by RA, no. 24. Photo: A. Bert. Lucien Muratore as the title character in Richard Wagner's opera 'Parsifal'.

His voice developed towards the high register

Lucien Muratore was a French singer born in Marseille on 29 August 1876. The son of a Piedmontese immigrant, Muratore began his acting career at a very young age at the Théâtre des Variétés in Marseille.

He was the partner of Réjane and Sarah Bernhardt at the Théâtre de l'Odéon and played 'La Dame de Chez Maxim' at the Théâtre des Nouveautés. He studied music at the conservatory in his hometown and then worked in Paris with Edmond Vergnet, the first Samson at the Paris Opera. Muratore began as a baritone, but his voice developed towards the high register.

He made his debut on 16 December 1902 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where he took part in the premiere of Reynaldo Hahn's 'La Carmélite'. In 1904, he sang Werther at La Monnaie in Brussels. In 1905, Muratore made his debut at the Paris Opera. He was quickly given the leading tenor roles, notably in 'Carmen' (Don José), 'Pagliacci' (Canio) and 'Tosca' (Cavaradossi).

He also created the role of Prinzivalle in Henry Février's 'Monna Vanna' in 1909 at the Paris Opera, Bacchus in Camille Erlanger's 'Bacchus triomphant' in Bordeaux in 1909, and Hercules in Camille Saint-Saëns' 'Déjanire' in 1911 at the Monte Carlo Opera. From 1913 onwards, he often stayed in the United States, particularly in Chicago and New York. During the First World War, he campaigned for American intervention in Europe.

Alongside his stage career, he made several films. Between 1914 and 1918, he made four silent films with Italian singer Lina Cavalieri, whom he married in 1913. They separated in 1919, but the divorce was finalised in 1927. These films with Cavalieri and Muratore were Manon Lescaut (Herbert Hall Winslow, 1914), with exteriors filmed in France, the Italian films Sposa nella morte! / The Shadow of Her Past (Emilio Ghione, 1915) and La rosa di Granata / The Rose of Granada (Emilio Ghione, 1916), and the Famous Players production A Woman of Impulse (Edward José, 1918). Apart from a cameo in La Galerie des monstres / Gallery of Monsters (Jaque Catelain, 1924), he didn't act in silent films anymore.


French postcard by F.C. & Cie., no. 183. Photo: G. Ouvières, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., 30th series, no. 2. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in 1902. Around 1900, Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944) was considered the most beautiful woman on earth.

The most popular French tenor of his time

When sound film set in, Lucien Muratore returned to the screen in Le chanteur inconnu / The Unknown Singer (Victor Tourjansky, 1931). Muratore plays a singer who has been in Russia and lost his memory, but his wife (Simone Cerdan) still loves him.

Three more films followed. In La voix sans visage / The Faceless Voice (Leo Mittler, 1933), Muratore is a singer accused of murdering his wife's lover and sentenced to ten years' hard labour. His daughter proves his innocence when she discovers the culprit to be his wife (Vera Korène), who wanted to end an embarrassing love affair.

Muratore closed his film career with the films Le chant du destin / The Song of Destiny (Jean-René Legrand, 1935), an alternative-language version of the Austrian film Abenteuer im Lido by Richard Oswald, and the short film Conscience (Robert Boudrioz, 1935). After bidding farewell to the stage in 1931 in 'Pénélope', he gradually devoted himself to teaching singing and directing.

He was mayor of the village of Biot (Alpes-Maritimes) from May 1929 until his resignation in 1934. During his term of office, Lucien Muratore sought and found funding to build a new bridge, better suited to motor traffic, connecting Biot to the town of Antibes. In April 1944, he accepted the position of director of the Opéra-Comique, from which he was relieved on 1 September, a few days after the liberation of Paris.

Lucien Muratore died in Paris's 17th arrondissement on 16 July 1954. He was married first to soprano Marguerite Bériza, and later to soprano Lina Cavalieri. His third wife was Marie Louise Brivaud. The most popular French tenor of his time, he is buried in Saint-Pierre Cemetery in Marseille. On his tomb, sculptor Antoine Sartorio depicted Orpheus and a lyre with the inscription ‘Le chant, don divin’ (Singing, a divine gift).


French leaflet by Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Photo: Production Osso. Lucien Muratore in the sound film Le chanteur inconnu / The Unknown Singer (Victor Tourjansky, 1931) also with Simone Simon.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 987. Photo: Les Films Osso. Lucien Muratore.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Gena Rowlands

American actress Gena Rowlands (1930-2024) played roles in theatre, television series, and film. She was nominated for an Oscar for her roles in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both directed by her husband, John Cassavetes.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N. 155.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Universal. Gena Rowlands in The Spiral Road (Robert Mulligan, 1962), based on the novel by Jan de Hartog.

Leaders in the independent film scene in the 1970s

Virginia Cathryn 'Gena' Rowlands was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1930. Rowlands was the daughter of the banker Edwyn Myrwyn Rowlands and his wife, the painter Mary Allen Neal. Gena grew up in Cambria, Wisconsin. In 1939, Edwyn Rowlands was appointed to political office in Washington, D.C., and the family followed him. Three years later, the family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Gena Rowlands attended Lee High School and then studied at the University of Wisconsin. She also completed classical acting training at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. There, Gena met future actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes. They married in 1954. The couple had three children who also entered the film world. Nick Cassavetes followed in his father's footsteps and also became a director. Alexandra Katherine and Zoe R. Cassavetes are both actresses and directors. Rowlands and Cassavetes remained together until Cassavetes died in 1989.

Gena Rowlands made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York, where she had started as a wardrobe mistress. Rowland made her first appearance in a television series in 1954 and over the decades has appeared as a guest actress in classic series such as Bonanza, 77 Sunset Strip, The People of Shiloh Ranch and Columbo. She made her Broadway breakthrough at the age of 26 in Paddy Chayefsky's romantic drama 'Middle of the Night' (1956). This helped her towards a Hollywood studio contract.

As an MGM contract actress, she debuted in José Ferrer's comedy High Cost of Loving (1958). Four years later, Rowland had the leading female role in The Western Lonely are the Brave (David Miller, 1962) alongside Kirk Douglas. She kept returning to the theatre and began to appear frequently in films directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, from 1959 onwards. As a couple, Rowlands and Cassavetes were leaders in the independent film scene in the 1970s in the US. Cassavetes was considered a pioneer of cinema vérité, a documentary-style film.

They made ten films together: A Child Is Waiting (John Cassavetes, 1963) with Judy Garland, Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968), the Italian crime film Gli intoccabili / Machine Gun McCain (Giuliano Montaldo, 1969), Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes, 1971) with Seymour Cassel, A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974), Two-Minute Warning (Larry Peerce, 1976) starring Charlton Heston, Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977), Gloria (John Cassavetes, (1980), Tempest (Paul Mazursky, 1982) with Susan Sarandon, and Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984). Rowlands was nominated for an Oscar for her roles in his films A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980) but missed out on the Academy Award in both cases. In total, they made ten productions together, often involving other family members such as Rowland's mother and her brother David. Film historian Richard Brody compared their innovative films to the collaboration between Jean-Luc Godard and his former wife Anna Karina.


Chinese postcard. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk in A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974).


Chinese postcard. Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes in Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977).

Acting with allure and dramatic power

Gena Rowlands remained active into old age. Apart from her husband, she also filmed with many other well-known directors. She played the lead role in Woody Allen's Another Woman (1989) and acted under Jim Jarmusch in Night on Earth (1991). In 1998, she played Sandra Bullock's mother in Hope Floats (Forest Whitaker, 1998). That same year, she also made major appearances in Paulie (John Roberts, 1988) and The Mighty (Peter Chelsom, 1998) with Kieran Culkin and Sharon Stone.

Her son, Nick Cassavetes, also cast the actress in several of his films. One of her best-known later roles was in Nick's romantic drama The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes, 2004) with James Garner and Ryan Gosling. In the film, she plays a woman with dementia. She won a Golden Satellite Award for her role.

During her career, she won more than 20 film awards, including the Silver Bear for Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977). She garnered Emmy Awards for her portrayal of the occasionally alcoholic presidential wife Betty Ford in the TV Movie The Betty Ford Story (David Greene, 1987), for Face of a Stranger (Claudia Weill, 1991) and for Hysterical Blindness (Mira Nair, 2002) with Uma Thurman.

In 2015, the then 85-year-old actress received an honorary Oscar in recognition of her entire career. The New Yorker wrote in 2016 about their oeuvre: ‘Together with Rowlands, Cassavetes managed to make independent films with Hollywood influences - not in plot and style but in acting, with allure and dramatic power'.

Surrounded by her family, Gena Rowlands died in her home in Indian Wells, Southern California, on 14 August 2024. She was 94. Her death was confirmed by the impresario of Nick Cassavetes. Cassavetes had announced in June 2024 that his mother had been suffering from Alzheimer's for several years. Since 2012, she has been married to Robert Forrest.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. S. 63. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French poster card by Cart'Postal System, Bourgoin. French affiche for Another Woman (Woody Allen, 1988), starring Mia Farrow and Gena Rowlands.


German postcard by Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Petra Goldmann. Caption: Gena Rowlands, 1984.

Sources: NOS (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch and German) and IMDb.

Sacha Guitry

French actor, dramatist and director Sacha Guitry (1885-1957) was known for his stage performances, often in the more than 120 plays he wrote. Guitry's plays range from historical dramas to contemporary light comedies. From the 1930s to the end of his life, he enthusiastically embraced the cinema, making as many as five films in a single year. After his death, 12,000 people filed past his coffin before his burial in Paris.


French postcard by F.A., no. 9. Photo: H. Manuel.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 84. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by GREFF, S.E.R.P. Editeur, Paris. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

His own definitive interpreter

Alexandre-Pierre Georges ‘Sacha’ Guitry was born at Nevsky Prospect no. 12, Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1885. He was the third son of the French actor Lucien Guitry and his wife Marie-Louise-Renée, née Delmas de Pont-Jest. The couple had eloped, in the face of family disapproval, and were married at St Martin in the Fields, London, in 1882. They then moved to the Russian capital, where Lucien ran the French theatre company, the Théâtre Michel, from 1882 to 1891.

The marriage was brief. Guitry Senior was a persistent adulterer, and his wife instituted divorce proceedings in 1888. Two of their sons died in infancy (one in 1883 and the other in 1887); the other surviving son, Jean, became an actor and journalist. The family's Russian nurse habitually shortened Alexandre-Pierre's name to the Russian diminutive ‘Sacha’, by which he was known all his life.

The young Sacha made his stage debut in his father's company at the age of five. When Lucien Guitry returned to Paris, he lived in a flat in a prestigious spot, overlooking the Place Vendôme and the Rue de la Paix. The young Sacha lived there, and for his schooling, he was first sent to the well-known Lycée Janson de Sailly in the fashionable Sixteenth arrondissement. He did not stay long there and went to a succession of other schools, both secular and religious, before abandoning formal education at the age of sixteen.

After giving up school, Guitry embarked on a career as a playwright with a little musical piece called 'Le Page' (1902), with a score by Ludo Ratz. Eighteen months later, he joined his father's company at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. At first, he appeared under the stage name ‘Lorcey’, but the pseudonym deceived no one, as the press immediately announced the debutant's real identity. His first role was in 'L'Escalier', by Maurice Donnay, in November 1904.

He fell out with his father over what the latter saw as Guitry's lack of professionalism. In the aftermath of their quarrel, they neither saw nor spoke to one another. A member of Lucien Guitry's company was a young actress, Charlotte Lysès. In 1905, she and Sacha set up home together. For her, he wrote his play, 'Le KWTZ' (1905).

He had his first substantial hit with 'Nono' at the Mathurins. When the leading man in Guitry's 1906 play 'Chez les Zoaques' fell ill, the author took over, and in the words of a critic, "proved to be his own definitive interpreter". The pattern of his career was set: he remained an actor-author and later manager for the rest of his life.


French postcard by Editions Gendre, Paris, no. 119. Photo: Paul Nadar, 1905. Caption: Sacha Guitry, French actor and author, 1885-1957.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 3. Photo: Emera.


French postcard by La Voix de son Maître. Photo: Alban, Bruxelles.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, no. 505. Photo: Tobis.

Five consecutive hits

For the next five years, Sacha Guitry's plays were, at best, moderate successes. But then he had five consecutive hits with 'Le veilleur de nuit' (1911), 'Un beau mariage' (1912), 'Le prise de Berg-op-Zoom' (1912), 'La pèlerine écossaise' (1912), and 'Les deux converts' (1914), the last of which was staged by the Comédie Française. His first film was Ceux de chez nous / Those Of Our Home (Sacha Guitry, 1915), a short patriotic piece illustrating the works of some French artists like Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin and Sarah Bernhardt. He wrote and played in the film Un Roman d'amour et d'aventures / A Novel Of Love And Adventure (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917), an experience that left him unsatisfied. He was not greatly attracted by the medium of silent film, regarding dialogue as the essence of drama. So, he did not make a full-length film until 1935.

In 1915, he met the young singer Yvonne Printemps, with whom he began an affair that led Charlotte to leave him and obtain a divorce. Guitry started to write leading roles for Printemps in some musicals and straight comedies. Guitry was reconciled with his father in 1918. Lucien appeared in many productions with his son and Printemps, including 'Mon Père avait raison' and 'Comment on ecrit l'histoire'. They played together in Paris, but also in the West End of London.

Guitry developed a charming, witty stage persona, often appearing in period-dress light comedies, for instance, his 1925 pastiche 'Mozart', about the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on a visit to Paris. To compose the score, he approached André Messager, with whom he had successfully collaborated in 1923 on a show for Printemps, 'L'amour masqué'. Messager was unavailable and recommended the composer Reynaldo Hahn, who accepted the commission. The resulting production took some liberties with historical accuracy, but it proved highly popular. Printemps, in a breeches role, played and sang the young Mozart, with Guitry as the composer's patron, Baron Grimm. After playing successfully at the Théâtre Edouard VII, the company presented the piece in London, on Broadway, Boston and Montreal in 1926-1927.

In 1931 Guitry was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1932, his marriage to Printemps ended. He took a six-month break from the theatre, returning in April 1933 in 'Châteaux en Espagne', which co-starred his new protégée, Jacqueline Delubac, whom he married on his fiftieth birthday. In 1935, he returned to the film studio to direct and act in Pasteur, a biography of the famous scientist. The film, based on a play which Guitry wrote in 1919, was a commercial failure, but during the shooting, Guitry fell in love with the process of filmmaking. He followed Pasteur with Bonne chance (Sacha Guitry, 1936), a comedy written directly for the screen.

In 1936 alone, Guitry released no less than four films, including the screen versions of two of his best-known plays: Faisons un rêve (written in 1916) and Mon Père avait raison (written in 1919). Le Roman d'un tricheur / The Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, 1936) was adapted from Guitry's only novel, 'Les Mémoires d'un tricheur', published in 1935. Despite lukewarm reviews, the film was well-received by the public and was also successful abroad. It is now considered his most innovative film. Apart from the four films, Guitry also wrote five plays in 1936. The following year, he played four roles in the partially historical film Les perles de la couronne / The Pearls Of The Crown (Sacha Guitry, Christian-Jacque, 1937) about the history of seven pearls, four of which ended up on the crown of England, the other three end up missing. In 1939, Jacqueline Delubac left her ‘workaholic’ husband. Within months of her leaving him, he married for a fourth time; his new wife was actress Geneviève de Séréville.


French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 51. Photo: U.F.P.C.


French postcard by Editions et Publications Cinematographiques (EPC), no. 144. Photo: Alban.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 84.


French postcard, no. 710. Photo: Film Sédif.

Accusations of collaborating with the enemy

Sacha Guitry's career was affected by the Nazi occupation of France. He continued to work both on stage and in the cinema under the Nazis. Although this allowed him to help many of his compatriots, it also brought accusations of collaborating with the enemy. He conceived his book and associated film, De 1429 à 1942 ou De Jeanne d'Arc à Philippe Pétain / 1429 to 1942, or Joan of Arc to Philippe Pétain (1942) as a tribute to France's past glories, but many saw it as honouring the collaborationist president of Vichy France, Marshal Pétain.

In 1944, Guitry's fourth wife left him. On the liberation of France, Guitry was among the first arrested by a self-appointed militia. He was interned in a detention camp at Drancy and suffered ill effects on his health that necessitated his transfer to a Paris nursing home. He was completely cleared of all accusations of collaboration, but the experience left him disillusioned.

In 1947, Guitry married for the fifth and last time; he was sixty-two and his bride, Lana Marconi, was twenty-eight. He was permitted to resume working in the theatre in 1948 when he returned to the Paris stage with 'Le diable boiteux'. For the London season in 1953, celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II, Guitry starred at the Winter Garden in 'Ecoutez bien, messieurs', a comedy in which he played a voluble Frenchman reduced to baffled silence by an even more voluble Englishwoman, played (in English) by Heather Thatcher. Later in the same year, he made his last stage appearance in Paris in 'Palsambleu'.

A huge success in the cinema was the historical drama Si Versailles m'était conté / Royal Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1954), which tells some episodes through the portrayal of the personalities who lived in Versailles' castle. In the film appeared a great number of well-known French actors appeared, often in short parts. Guitry also made the ‘sister’ films Napoléon (Sacha Guitry, 1955) with Daniel Gélin as Napoléon as a young man and Raymond Pellegrin as Napoléon in later life, and Si Paris nous était conté / If Paris Were Told to Us (Sacha Guitry, 1956).

He continued to make films until 1957, when he suffered a disabling disease of the nervous system. Sacha Guitry died in Paris at the age of seventy-two. Twelve thousand people filed past his coffin, and he was buried, like his father, in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.


French postcard. Set of the play 'La Fin du Monde' by Sacha Guitry, first performed in 1935, at the Theatre de la Madeleine in Paris. Not to be confused with the 1930 Sci-Fi film by Abel Gance.


French promotion card by Cineas. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for Le nouveau Testament / Indiscretions (Sacha Guitry, 1936).


West-German postcard by Universum-Film A.G. (Ufa), Berlin Tempelhof, no. FK 955. Photo: C.L.M. Film, Paris/ Pallas Film Verleih. Lana Marconi in Si Versailles m’était conté / Royal Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1954). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1088. Photo: Raymond Voinquel.

Sources: François Leclair (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.