Musidora

We're at the Dutch Silent Film Festival, and the first film today is Soleil et ombre (Musidora, Jacques Lasseyne, 1922). A young maid is betrayed by her fiancé, a famous bullfighter who falls in love with an exotic foreign woman. With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin and exotic wardrobes, Musidora (1889-1957) created an unforgettable vamp persona. The French film star is best known for her roles in the Louis Feuillade serials Les Vampires (1915-1916) as Irma Vep (an anagram for ‘vampire’), the voluptuous leader of a gang of criminals, and in Judex (1917) as Marie Verdier. At a time when many women in the film industry were relegated to acting, Musidora also achieved some success as a producer and director. Later, she became a journalist and wrote about cinema.


French cigarette card by Cigarettes Le Nil, no. 38. Photo: H. Manuel.


French postcard by Editions Gordon & Cie., Vincennes (Seine).


French postcard by Photo-Editions Renaissance, no. 532. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by Editions Sid, Paris, no. 8039. Photo: G.I. Manuel Frères.


French magazine cover of Mon Ciné, no. 30, 14 September 1922. Musidora in Soleil et ombre / Sol y sombre / Sun and Shadow (Jaime De Lasuen, Musidora, 1922). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Gift of the muses

Musidora was born Jeanne Roques in Paris, France, in 1889. She was raised by a feminist mother and a socialist father. She began her career in the arts at an early age, writing her first novel at the age of fifteen and acting on the stage with the likes of Colette, one of her lifelong friends. She performed in revues at French music halls and cabarets, such as the Folies Bergère, Concert Mayol, and La Cigale. Jeanne adopted the stage name Musidora (Greek for 'gift of the muses'), after the heroine in Théophile Gautier's novel 'Fortunio'.

She made her film debut already around 1909, but in 1914, she started to appear regularly in short silent films like Les miseres de l'aiguille / The Misery of the Needle (Raphael Clamour, 1914). She starred in a few silent films by Gaston Ravel, including La bouquetière des Catalans / The Flower Girl of Catalonia (Gaston Ravel, 1914) and Le trophée du Zouave / The Zouave Trophy (Gaston Ravel, 1915). She also began to work with the highly successful film director Louis Feuillade and appeared in a dozen of his short silent films for Gaumont. These included Severo Torelli (Louis Feuillade, 1914), Tu n'épouseras jamais un avocat / You Will Never Marry a Lawyer (Louis Feuillade, 1914) featuring Marcel Lévesque, Le calvaire / The Calvary (Louis Feuillade, 1914) with René Navarre, and Les noces d'argent / Silver Wedding (Louis Feuillade, 1915) with Édouard Mathé.

Musidora then appeared in his hugely successful serial Les Vampires / The Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915-1916) as cabaret singer Irma Vep opposite Édouard Mathé as crusading journalist Philippe Guerande. Musidora’s mystique was accentuated in Les Vampires by her large, dark eyes and wearing a black leotard, hood and tights. Les Vampires was not actually about vampires, but about a criminal gang-cum-secret society inspired by the exploits of the real-life Bonnot Gang. Irma Vep was adored by the surrealists, who deemed her both an embodiment of cinema itself and the projection of the deepest truth of the time. A modern fairy, a haunting enigma made flesh, night incarnate in her black silk catsuit, a bewitching shadow, the elusive and wild character of Irma Vep, with her dark-eyed gaze and seductive silhouette, made the actress Musidora immortal.

Besides playing a leading role in the Vampires' crimes, Irma Vep also spends two episodes under the hypnotic control of Moreno, a rival criminal who makes her his lover and induces her to assassinate the Grand Vampire. The series used gadgets like poison rings, poison fountain pens, cabinets with fake back panels, etc. It was an immediate success with French cinema-goers and ran in 10 instalments until 1916.

After the Les Vampires serial, Musidora starred in Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917), another popular Feuillade serial filmed in 1916 but delayed for release until 1917 because of World War I. Judex is a twelve-part serial following the adventures of the masked vigilante Judex (René Cresté) as he fights against criminals led by the corrupt banker Favraux. Les Vampires and Judex have been lauded by critics like André Bazin as the birth of avant-garde cinema and cited by filmmakers like Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel as being extremely influential in their desires to become directors.


French postcard by Maury's International Attraction Circuit. Photo: publicity still for Severo Torelli (Louis Feuillade, 1914). Severo Torelli was a French silent feature, produced by Gaumont and based on a 1883 play by François Coppée. Fernand Herrmann played the title role, and the female lead was Renée Carl (Dona Pia). Musidora played Portia.


French postcard, no. 67. Caption: Le Tréport - Le Repos de la Pêcheuse de Crevettes. (Le Tréport - The Rest of the Shrimp Fisherwoman). Collection: Marlène Pilaete.


Spanish postcard. Photo: Gaumont. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Spanish promotional postcard for the 12-part serial Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1916) with Musidora and at right Marcel Lévesque. The man left is possibly Jean Devalde. It's a scene from episode 4, Le secret de la tombe / The Secret of the Tomb. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

The most deserving girl of France

Musidora also starred in films by other directors, like Le pied qui étreint (Jacques Feyder, 1916) - a funny send-up of Feuillade's serials, the silent adventure film Les chacals / The Jackals (André Hugon, 1917), starring André Nox, La jeune fille la plus méritante de France / The Most Deserving Girl of France (Germaine Dulac, 1918), and Mademoiselle Chiffon (André Hugon, 1919), with Suzanne Munte.

Apart from her acting career, she became a film producer and director under the tutelage of her mentor, Louis Feuillade. Her first film was an adaptation of a novel by her friend Colette, La vagabonda / The Vagabond (Musidora, Eugenio Perego, 1918). Between the late 1910s and early 1920s, she directed ten films, all of which are lost except two: the tragic romance Soleil et ombre / Sol y sombre / Sun and Shadow (Jaime De Lasuen aka Jacques Lasseyne, Musidora, 1922) and La terre des taureaux / La tierra de los toros / The Land of the Bulls (Musidora, 1924), both of which were filmed in Spain, starring the Cordoban mounted bullfighter Antonio Cañero.

In Italy, she produced and directed La Flamme Cachée / The Hidden Flame (Roger Lion, Musidora, 1918) based on another work by Colette. At a time when many women in the film industry were relegated to acting, Musidora achieved a degree of success as a producer and director. Annette Förster writes in an article at Women Film Pioneers Project: “While her films were favorably reviewed in the press, Musidora as producer reputedly only lost money on them. It remains unclear whether this was due to the terms of her contract, as she claimed in a 1946 interview with Renee Sylvaire, or to the fact that the films failed at the box office.”

Her final film role was as Delilah in the drama Le berceau de dieu / The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926). After her career as an actress was over, she focused on writing and producing. Her last film was an homage to her mentor Feuillade entitled La Magique Image / The Magic Image (1950), which she both directed and starred in.

Late in her life, she would occasionally work in the ticket booth of the Cinemathèque Française. Few patrons realised that the older woman in the foyer might be starring in the film they were watching. At 68, Musidora died in Paris, France, in 1957 and was laid to rest in the Cimetière de Bois-le-Roi. Musidora was married to Dr. Clément Marot from 1927 till 1944. The union produced one child, Clément Marot Jr.


French postcard in the series Nos Artistes dans leur Loge, no. 97. Photo: Comoedia. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by A.N. Paris, no. 3737. French painter René Carrère (1879-1959) was notably known for his portraits of celebrities of his time, such as Mistinguett, Spinelly, Colette, Aristide Bruant or Sacha Guitry. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French collector card in the series 'Portrait de Stars; L'encyclopédie du Cinéma' by Edito Service, 1992. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Française. Caption: Musidora, 1915, France.


Italian postcard by Il Cinema Ritrovato, 2019. Poster: Collection La Cinémathèque Française.

Sources: Annette Förster (Women Film Pioneers Project), Bobb Edwards (Find A Grave), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Malcolm Tod

Tonight and this weekend, EFSP will join the Netherlands Silent Film Festival in the city of Eindhoven. The opening film is the German comedy Saxophon-Susi (Carl Lamac, 1928) starring Anny Ondra and British actor Malcolm Tod(d). Malcolm Tod (1897-1968) was a star of British and European silent cinema of the 1920s. He appeared in more than thirty films from 1921 to 1934.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 92. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Malcolm Tod in the late silent film Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante 1928). On Italian postcards, Tod's name was often misspelt.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 247. Photo: Production Natan.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 68.

Smart, slightly snobbish aristocrats and gentlemen

Malcolm Tod was born in 1897 in Burton-on-Trent, England. He was the son of a brewer. During the First World War, he served on the French front. On 6 September 1917, when serving as 1st lieutenant in the First Black Watch Regiment, he married Margaret Bates.

After the war, he worked as an actor, growing from small 'walk-on' parts and extras in mass scenes to leads. In front of the camera, he convincingly played smart, slightly snobbish aristocrats and gentlemen.

From 1921, he acted in British silent cinema. Tod had a prolific career in the early 1920s as a supporting actor in crime films and detectives for Master Films and Stoll Picture Productions, with leading actors like Victor McLaglen, Ivy Close and Charles Hutchison.

From 1923, he also acted in French silent films, such as the Franco-Austrian coproduction Das Bildnis /The Portrait (Jacques Feyder, 1923) with Arlette Marchal, Victor Vina, Fred Louis Lerch and Armand Dufour, Les puits de Jacob / A Daughter of Israel (Edward José, 1925) with Betty Blythe and Léon Mathot, and Le berceau de dieu / The Cradle of God (Fred Leroy Granville, 1926) with an all-star cast of Mathot plus Stacia Napierkowska, Annette Benson, Joë Hamman, Gabriel Signoret, Musidora, André Roanne, Rachel Devirys, France Dhélia, and Gabriel De Gravone.

He also appeared in Rue de la paix (Henri Diamant-Berger 1927), starring Andrée Lafayette and Suzy Pierson, André Cornelis (Jean Kemm, 1927), in which Tod played both André and Justin Cornelis, opposite Suzy Pierson, Claude France and Georges Lannes, and Mon Paris (Albert Guyot 1928).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Editore, Milano, no. 4. Photo: Production Pittaluga Film, Torino.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 91. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928). Exactly the same location and camera angle were already used five years before by Almirante in his film L'ombra / The Shadow (Mario Almirante, 1923).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 95. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Todd, not dead

From 1925, Malcolm Tod also acted in German films, such as Die Stadt der Versuchung / The City of Temptation (Walter Niebuhr, 1925) starring Olga Tschechova, Der Mitternachtswalzer / The Midnight Waltz (Heinz Paul, 1928) with Elisabeth Pinajeff, the comedy Saxophon-Susi / Suzy Saxophone (Carl Lamac, 1928) starring Anny Ondra, and the British-German film Die Siegerin / After the Verdict (Henrik Galeen, 1929) with Olga Tschechova and Warwick Ward.

In Germany, an extra 'd' was added to Tod's last name to avoid associations with death (Tod = death). A visit to Hollywood in 1925 didn't result in a breakthrough, so Tod continued his European career. In Britain, he starred in films like Poppies of Flanders (Arthur Maude, 1925) and The Woman Tempted (Maurice Elvey, 1926).

In 1927-1928, Tod acted in two Italian films by Mario Almirante for Pittaluga. The first film was Addio mia bella Napoli, shot in 1927 but then shelved and only released - quite unsuccessfully - in 1930 in a sonorised version, arranged by Guglielmo Zorzi, as Napoli che canta / The Double Adventure.

The second Italian film was Il carnevale di Venezia / The Carnival of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1928), starring Maria Jacobini, partly shot on location. In the sound era, Tod's career quickly halted. He had two last minor parts in the British films Love's Old Sweet Song (H. Manning Haynes, 1933) starring John Stuart, and in Nine Forty-Five (George King, 1934) starring Binnie Barnes.

In 1931, Malcolm Tod remarried to stage actress Jane Wood. After that, he apparently withdrew from the entertainment world. In 1939, he married his third wife, Pamela Ruth Burrows. His only two children were born of this marriage, Felicity Wendy Tod (born 1940) and April Belle Prunella Tod (1944). April later became a well-known Sports journalist. Malcolm Tod died in 1968 in Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK.


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 102. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 106. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).


Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 107. Photo: S.A. Stefano Pittaluga. Maria Jacobini and Malcolm Tod in Il carnevale di Venezia (Mario Almirante, 1928).

Sources: Halson, Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

15 New cards from G.D.I.

It's the 15th, and we make another splash in the wonderful postcard collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. This time, I selected 15 postcards from a little brown album from the estate of the late film historians and journalists Tjitte de Vries and Atie Mul. It's a fan album containing postcards of Hollywood stars and European performers from the 1920s and 1930s. Amazing is the Dutch postcard of comedian Jo Buziau. This tiny comedian was the greatest star of the Dutch stage before WW II, and he also appeared in some lost silent films. His card is a rare find. Furthermore, the album contained delicious postcards of some of the most glamorous screen stars of the 1920s. Enjoy!


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 351/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass / Deutsche Bioscope.

Uschi Elleot (1899–1975) was a German stage and film actress who starred in several silent films. She was the younger sister of actress Carola Toelle. After her cinema career ended, she emigrated to the United States and married an American.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 363/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Grit Hegesa (1891-1972) was a German dancer and silent film actress. She appeared in seventeen films, including Ewald André Dupont's crime film Whitechapel (1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1868/1, 1927-1928. Photo: First National.

Hungarian Maria Corda (1898-1975) was an immensely popular star of the silent cinema of Austria and Germany. The pretty, blonde actress was a queen of the popular epic spectacles of the 1920s, which were often directed by her husband, Alexander Korda.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3583/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien.

German actress Maria Paudler (1903-1990) was a popular star of the late silent cinema. She also played the leading role in the first German TV film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3683/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Defina.

American actress Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was a star of the silent screen who appeared in about 100 films beginning in 1917. During the 1920s, she put her stamp on American social history, creating in dozens of films the image of the wide-eyed, insouciant flapper with her bobbed hair and short skirts.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4398/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

American film actress Mary Astor (1906–1987) was famous for her part as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. She won an Oscar as best supporting actress for The Great Lie (1941). Astor had a long acting career that already started in the silent era in 1921 and included over 100 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5103/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Phyllis Haver (1899-1960) was an American actress of the silent film era. With her curvy figure and blonde hair, she started her career as one of the most popular of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. Haver quickly worked her way up to leading roles, and she was signed by Cecil B. De Mille. Among her best roles were Roxy Hart in the first film version of Chicago (1927) and as Shanghai Mabel in What Price Glory? (1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5623/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Aileen Pringle (1895-1989) was an American film actress of the silent screen. She was catapulted into stardom by her appearance in the Goldwyn production Three Weeks (Alan Crosland, 1924) with Conrad Nagel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5655/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Fox.

Marguerite Churchill (1910-2000) was an American film actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952. She is best known today as John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5671/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.

German actress and singer Else Elster (1910-1998) appeared in over forty films during the Weimar and Nazi eras.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1005. Photo: Nordisk Films Kompagni, Copenhagen.

Lilly Jacobsson (1893-1979), aka Lilly Jacobson, was a Swedish actress who starred in Swedish and Danish silent films by Eric Malmberg, Mauritz Stiller and Holger-Madsen. She was the leading lady of the popular Danish film Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru / The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (1917).


Dutch postcard by Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. Photo: Willem Coret.

Johan Buziau, aka Buziau (1877-1958), was a Dutch clownish comedian and revue artist.


French postcard by Europe, no. 969. Photo: Star Film. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1932.

Anna May Wong (1905-1961) will become the first Asian American to be on U.S. currency. She was the first Chinese-American movie star and Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe, where she starred in such classics as Piccadilly (1929).


Dutch postcard, no. 180. Photo: Universal. Genevieve Tobin and Conrad Nagel in Free Love (Hobart Henley, 1930).

American actress Genevieve Tobin (1899-1995) appeared in a few silent films as a child and formed a double role with her sister, Vivian. Her peak years as an actress were in the 1930s. She mostly played smaller roles in screwball comedies.

American actor Conrad Nagel (1897-1970) was a tall, blue-eyed matinee idol of the 1920s. He successfully made the transition to sound film.


Dutch postcard for Passage Theater, Den Haag (The Hague). Photo: Gaumont British / F.H. Film. Cicely Courtneidge in Aunt Sally (Tim Whelan, 1934). The Dutch title was Tante Sally. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

British actress Cicely Courtneidge (1893–1980) was an elegantly knockabout comedienne. For 62 years, she formed a husband and wife team with comedian Jack Hulbert on stage, radio, TV and in the cinema. During the 1930’s they also starred together in eleven British films and one disastrous American production.

All postcards are part of the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI). Our next GDI post will be on 15 February 2026.

Anthony Franciosa

In the late 1950s, American Anthony 'Tony' Franciosa (1928-2006) was a hot commodity in Hollywood. He was nominated in 1956 for a Tony Award for 'A Hatful of Rain,' a role he reprised in Fred Zinnemann's A Hatful of Rain (1957), for which he received an Oscar nomination. He starred in such films as Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957) and Martin Ritt's The Long, Hot Summer (1958). He was handsome and charming, but he soon also developed a reputation as being 'difficult', with a notoriously hair-trigger temper. Later, he mainly appeared on TV and in Italian cinema.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1497. Photo: Paramount.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 673.

A very hot commodity in Hollywood

Anthony Franciosa, or Tony Franciosa, was born Anthony Papaleo in 1928 in New York’s Little Italy. He was the grandchild of emigrants from Melfi, Basilicata, in the heart of Southern Italy. His father was a construction worker, and his mother was a seamstress who divorced when he was a year old. After this, he was raised by his mother and aunt, adopting his mother's maiden name, Franciosa. He seldom saw his father, and they never got to know each other.

After graduating from high school, during a visit to a YMCA to take a free dance lesson, Franciosa came across an audition for a play. Intrigued, he auditioned and was offered a part in a production of 'The Seagull'. The experience made him want to be an actor, and Franciosa studied privately for two years with Joseph Geigler. He got a four-year scholarship at the Dramatic Workshop, which led to the New York Repertory Theatre. In 1948, Franciosa joined the Cherry Lane Theatre Group off Broadway.

Within two years, he had been accepted as a member of the Actors Studio, which would prove an invaluable resource throughout his career. There he met his future wife, Shelley Winters and his friend Paul Newman. Franciosa had his breakthrough in Calder Willingham's play 'End as a Man', which opened off-Broadway at the Theatre de Lys in 1953 and transferred to Broadway after 32 performances. It was directed by Jack Garfein and co-starred Ben Gazzara, who won a Theatre World Award and would appear in the film version. In 1955, he appeared in the role that would make him famous: 'Polo Pope', the brother of a heroin addict in Michael V. Gazzo's 'A Hatful of Rain' under the direction of Actors Studio co-founder Elia Kazan. The Actors Studio workshop production later moved to Broadway, where Franciosa earned an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award nomination.

Hollywood beckoned, and he made his film debut in Robert Wise's comedy This Could Be the Night (1957) with Paul Douglas and Jean Simmons. He appeared in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957) as Joey DePalma alongside Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Lee Remick. Then he reprised the role of Polo Pope in Fred Zinnemann's film adaptation A Hatful of Rain (1957), with Don Murray and Eva Marie Saint playing the roles originated by Ben Gazzara and Shelly Winters. For the role, Franciosa received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in 1958 and won the Coppa Volpi and the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

With his good looks, he was now a very hot commodity in Hollywood. He starred in a variety of top A-list films, including George Cukor's Wild Is the Wind (1957) alongside Anna Magnani and Anthony Quinn, and Martin Ritt's The Long, Hot Summer (1958) with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. In The Naked Maja (Henry Koster, 1958), he played painter Francisco Jose de Goya, opposite Ava Gardner. For the drama Career (Joseph Anthony, 1959) with Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. Clifford Odets directed him in the drama The Story on Page One (1959) starring Rita Hayworth.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1401. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Wild Is the Wind (George Cukor, 1957).

A private blackballing within the film industry

Anthony Franciosa's career began to run out of momentum almost as quickly as it had started. Privately, he was a fervent civil rights activist and was joined by Marlon Brando and Paul Newman in Gadsden, Alabama, in 1963 for a desegregation drive. On the sets, he rapidly developed a reputation as 'difficult'. In 1957, he served 10 days in the Los Angeles County jail for slugging a press photographer. In 1959, he served 30 days at an open prison farm for possession of marijuana. The same year, he was in a car accident. According to ex-wife Judy Balaban, as recounted in her book 'Bridesmaids,' her father, Barney Balaban, then head of Paramount Pictures, strongly disapproved of her marriage to Franciosa. In retaliation, he initiated a private blackballing of Franciosa within the film industry, leading to a decline of A-projects being offered to Franciosa in the early 1960s.

Although he starred in the adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment (George Roy Hill, 1962), by 1964, he was reduced to appearing in a TV series, Valentine's Day (1964), which lasted a single season. In 1968, he was cast as one of three alternating leads with Gene Barry and Robert Stack in the television series The Name of the Game (1968). It was a spin-off from the TV movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (Stuart Rosenberg, 1966), the first TV movie ever made as a pilot for a TV series that was subsequently picked up as a series. Although the show was popular with audiences, Franciosa was fired after appearing in the first two seasons. NBC justified giving him the sack because the actor's mercurial temper was causing too many problems on the set.

He also starred in the TV series Search (1972–1973). Looking back at his career in a 1996 interview, Franciosa acknowledged that he was too inexperienced to handle sudden stardom. "It was an incredible amount of attention, and I wasn't quite mature enough psychologically and emotionally for it". Despite his problems in Hollywood, Anthony Franciosa was successful in Italian cinema. His first important role in Italy was in Mauro Bolognini's Senilità / Careless (1962) with Claudia Cardinale, based on Italo Svevo's novel of the same name. Later, he acted in Antonio Margheriti's Horror film Nella stretta morsa del ragno / Web of the Spider (1971) with Michèle Mercier and Klaus Kinski.

In the US, Franciosa had supporting parts in the action films Across 110th Street (Barry Shear, 1972), and The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975) starring Paul Newman. He had leading roles in the TV series Matt Helm (1975) and the Aaron Spelling-produced series Finder of Lost Loves (1984), which both only lasted one season. In Italy, he starred in Alberto Lattuada's La cicala / The Cricket (1980) with Virna Lisi, Pupi Avati's romantic film Aiutami a sognare / Help Me Dream (1981), with Marangela Melato, and Dario Argento's Giallo Tenebrae / Tenebre (1982) with John Saxon and Giuliano Gemma.

His talent and charm meant he was in demand throughout the five decades of his career, though not in the kinds of roles that characterised the first two decades of his star period. He continued to act in supporting roles in films and starring roles in TV movies and series until he retired in 1996. Franciosa's last screen appearance was as a crime boss in Harold Becker's film City Hall (1995), alongside Al Pacino and John Cusack. Ten years later, he appeared in one last project, Manifest Mysteries: Coronation (2006), shortly before his death. He died in 2006 in Los Angeles, at the age of 77. It was five days after his ex-wife, actress Shelley Winters, had died. He was married four times. His first wife, Beatrice Bakalyar, was a writer (1952-1957). After his marriage to Shelley Winters (1957-1960), he married Judy Balaban (1961-1970), with whom he had a daughter, Nina Franciosa. After their divorce, he married Rita Thiel (1970-2006), with whom he had two sons, actor Christopher Franciosa and Marco Franciosa.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D. 966. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. N. 33.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Golden Globes, Wikipedia (English, Italian and Dutch), and IMDb.

Renée Faure

French actress Renée Faure (1918-2005) had an exceptional theatrical career that spanned from 1937 to 1990. She was a member of the Comédie-Française, but also appeared in many films. Faure was married to director Christian-Jaque, but he left her for Martine Carol.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 44. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 97. Photo: Teddy Piaz.

A challenging role in Robert Bresson's debut

Renée Paule Nanine Faure was born in 1918 in Paris. She was the daughter of René Prosper Faure, director of the Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, and Henriette Anna (née Beauregard). She attended the Maison de la Légion d'Honneur in Saint-Denis. An excellent student, she was the youngest graduate of her class to receive the baccalaureate. With her parents' approval, she entered the Paris Conservatoire to study with René Simon, and then André Bruno.

At 19, Renée Faure married her classmate, actor Renaud Mary, father of her only daughter, Emmanuelle. Faure joined the Comédie-Française in July 1937, where she played ingénues and was appointed a Sociétaire (a member) in 1942. When, in 1938, she played the role of Emmauelle in 'Asmodée,' directed by Jacques Copeau, Faure demonstrated her dramatic talents, and from then on, she performed plays by the great authors. Her classical repertoire included 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo (1938), 'Cyrano de Bergerac' by Edmond Rostand (1938), 'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare (1940) and 'Phèdre' by Jean Racine (1942).

After breaking through on stage, she made her film debut in the crime comedy L’assassinat du Père Noël / The Assassination of Santa Claus (Christian-Jaque, 1941), the first film produced by Continental Films. She played Catherine, who dreams of her Prince Charming, Baron Rolant (Raymond Rouleau). Catherine is the daughter of Cornusse (Harry Baur), who, like every year, disguises himself as Santa Claus. But this year, a murdered Santa Claus is found. Fortunately, it isn't Cornusse; the police arrest a stranger hiding among the villagers.

Her debut was followed by the romantic comedy Le prince charmant / Prince Charming (Jean Boyer, 1941). She played Rosine, a young girl who meets a wealthy partygoer (Jimmy Gaillard). He falls madly in love and pretends to be a bad boy to seduce her. Then Robert Bresson offered her a challenging role in his first film, Les Anges du péché / Angels of Sin (Robert Bresson, 1943). In this moving drama, she played an angelic nun who devotes herself to imprisoned women. She strives to help a prisoner (Jany Holt), but once freed, the latter murders the man who caused her incarceration and takes refuge in a convent. Wikipedia: "Though usually seen as being the most 'conventional' of Bresson's features, the religious subject matter and the directness of the film's style are seen by many as auspicious of the director's later work."

In Christian-Jaque's romantic drama Sortilèges / The Bellman (Christian-Jaque, 1944), Faure is coveted by a solitary sorcerer and murderer in the mountains of Auvergne. The film was popular and recorded over 2,5 million admissions in France. In the sentimental and tragic drama, Torrents (Serge de Poligny, 1946), Georges Marchal's character had to choose between his cousin (Renée Faure) and his wife (Helen Vita). A huge hit was the historical drama La chartreuse de Parme / The Charterhouse of Parme (Christian-Jaque, 1947), based on Stendhal's novel. Renée Faure played the daughter of a prison governor, who falls in love with a handsome prisoner, a marquis played by Gérard Philipe. It was the most popular French film at the French box office in 1948. In 1949, Faure starred in the romantic drama On n'aime qu'une fois / You Only Love Once (Jean Stelli, 1949), in which the mother (Françoise Rosay) of her childhood friend (Jacques Berthier) rejects their relationship and sends her son to Paris to become a great surgeon.


French postcard by Editions Continental, no. 139/A. Photo: Continental Films. Renée Faure in  L’assassinat du Père Noël / The Assassination of Santa Claus (Christian-Jaque, 1941).


French postcard by Édit. Chantal, Rueil (S.-O.), no. 14. Photo: C.C.F.C. Sent by mail in 1943.

A passion for fishing

In 1947, Renée Faure married director Christian-Jaque. The couple worked together three times. Their last film together was the romantic comedy Adorables créatures / Adorable Creatures (Christian-Jaque, 1952) starring Daniel Gélin, Antonella Lualdi, Danielle Darrieux and Martine Carol. When Christian-Jaque started an affair with Carol, Faure's marriage to him ended in a divorce in 1953.

Faure played a sinister role as an organiser of the trafficking of women in Cargaison blanche / White Cargo (Georges Lacombe, 1953) with Georges Rivière. During the 1950s, she continued to perform on stage and played in William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' (1952), Jean Racine's 'Britannicus' (1953), and Jean Giraudoux's 'Electra' (1959). On screen, she was three times the partner of Jean Gabin, in Le sang à la tête / Blood to the Head (Gilles Grangier, 1956), the psychological drama Rue des Prairies (Denys de La Patellière, 1959) and Le Président / The President (Henri Verneuil, 1961).

The following decade, Renée Faure devoted herself to television and theatre, and her appearances on the big screen became less frequent. On stage, she appeared in Jean Anouilh's 'Antigone' (1961), Friedrich Schiller's 'Mary Stuart' (1963), and Jean Cocteau's 'The Two-Headed Eagle' (1965). In 1964, she left the Comédie-Française, and in 1965, she was appointed a Sociétaire honoraire (honorary member). After a ten-year hiatus, she returned to the cinema in Bertrand Tavernier's Le juge et l’assassin / The Judge and the Assassin (1975). She played the fearsome mother of the social climber Judge Rousseau (Philippe Noiret), who handles the case of Bouvier (Michel Galabru), who has killed his fiancée and committed other crimes.

In La petite voleuse /The Little Thief (Claude Miller, 1988), she had a brief but striking role as an abortionist with a witchy look who terrifies a pregnant teenager (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a little thief living on the fringes of society. After twenty-two years' absence, she returned to the Comédie-Française to play the role of the first prioress in 'Dialogue of the Carmelites' (1987) by Georges Bernanos. In the 1990s, her career was almost over. She made brief appearances in such films as À la vitesse d'un cheval au galop (Fabien Onteniente, 1992) and the crime drama L'inconnu dans la maison / Stranger in the House (Georges Lautner, 1992), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. The latter was based on a novel by Georges Simenon, previously filmed by Henri Decoin in 1941, the year of her film debut.

Then, she returned to television, which she considered an ideal compromise between film and theatre. Her final film was the Italian drama Nel profondo paese straniero / Homer: Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man (Fabio Carpi, 1995) with Claude Rich. After her divorce from Christian-Jaque, she never remarried. In 2005, Renée Faure died of complications following surgery at the age of 86 in Clamart, near Paris. She is buried in the old cemetery in Boulogne-Billancourt. At Notre Cinéma, Gary Richardson cites her answer to a journalist who asked her once what her passion was in life: "Fishing. Whenever I can, I go to my cottage in the Nièvre to harpoon salmon trout."


Vintage photo by Harcourt, Paris. Georges Marchal as Pylades and Renée Faure in the play 'Iphigénie en Tauride', based on Goethe, directed by Jean Yonnel for the Comédie-Française in 1942.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 119. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris, no. CF 24. Photo: N. Hayer. Gérard Philipe and Renée Faure in La chartreuse de Parme (Christian-Jaque, 1948).

Sources: Gary Richardson (Notre Cinéma - French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag

This January, EFSP focuses on Denmark and its film culture. J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag was a much smaller Danish postcard company than Alex Vincents Kunstforlag in Copenhagen. However, publisher Jens Christian Olsen (1891-1964) also produced an impressive series of sepia film postcards with Scandinavian and Hollywood stars of the 1920s. We chose 15 favourites from our Flickr album.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag. Eneret, no. 432.

American actor William Farnum (1876-1953) was one of the first major movie stars. From 1914 to 1925, Farnum was one of the biggest sensations in Hollywood, earning $10,000 a week. Farnum's silent pictures include the Westerns The Spoilers (1914), which culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight, Drag Harlan (1920) and the drama-adventure If I Were King (1921).


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 452.

Betty Compson (1897–1974) was an American actress and film producer. She peaked in silent cinema and early talkies, and is best known for her performances as a suicidal prostitute rescued by a stoker (George Bancroft) in The Docks of New York (Joseph Von Sternberg, 1928), and as the manipulative carnival girl Carrie in the part-talkie The Barker (George Fitzmaurice, 1928), the latter earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag. Eneret, no. 454.

Lois Wilson (1894-1988) was an American screen and stage actress who played in about 150 silent films. She was directed by Lois Weber, William De Mille and James Cruze. She was often cast as the romantic woman and 'the marrying kind', though she didn't marry in real life.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 472. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Dorothy Dalton (1893-1972) was an American actress who was highly popular in the silent era. She worked for Kay-Bee, Thomas Ince Corp., and Famous Players (Paramount). She left the film sets in 1924 when she married theatre producer Arthur Hammerstein.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 500. Collection: Marlene Pilaete. Alma Bennett.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 536. Photo: Milton Sills and Enid Bennett in The Sea Hawk (Frank Lloyd, 1924).

Milton Sills (1882-1930) was a major American silent film actor and university professor. His relatively early death and his unusual career made him a legend.

Enid Bennett (1893–1969) was an Australian silent film actress, mostly active in American film. She peaked in the late 1910s and early 1920s with films such as Robin Hood (1922), starring Douglas Fairbanks. In 1931, she played Jackie Coogan's mother in the Oscar-winning film Skippy. She was the wife of director Fred Niblo and, after his death of director Sidney Franklin.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 541. Lloyd Hughes in The Sea Hawk (Frank Lloyd, 1924).

Clean-cut, sensitive Lloyd Hughes (1897-1958) was an American actor of both the silent and sound film eras. He appeared in such silent classics as Tess of the Storm Country (1921), The Sea Hawk (1924), and The Lost World (1925).


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 542.

Ben Lyon (1901-1979) was an American stage, film, radio, and TV performer, as well as a studio manager. He is famous for his part as the war aviator in Hell's Angels (1930). He was married to the actresses Bebe Daniels and Marian Nixon.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, no. 549. Photo: Ferd. Flodin, Stockholm.

Lars Hanson (1886-1965) was a highly successful Swedish film and stage actor, mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era, both in Scandinavia and Hollywood.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 565. Milton Sills posing with the book, which was adapted to the eponymous film, The Sea Hawk (Frank Lloyd, 1924), with Sills in the lead.

Milton Sills (1882-1930) was a major American silent film actor and university professor. His relatively early death and his unusual career made him a legend.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 580. Barbara La Marr in The Shooting of Dan McGrew (Clarence G. Badger, 1924). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Beautiful Barbara La Marr (1896–1926) was an American film actress, noted for her beauty and her tempestuous marital history. After some early experience in vaudeville, she became a screenplay writer and then a performer, appearing with Douglas Fairbanks and others in over thirty movies, as well as dancing on Broadway. Her hedonistic lifestyle in Hollywood, with heavy drug dependence, led to her early death.


Danish postcard by J.Ch. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 629. Photo: Nordisk. Karina Bell in the romantic comedy Kan Kvinder fejle / Can women fail? (A.W. Sandberg, 1924).

Danish actress Karina Bell (1898-1979) was one of the most popular stars of the Nordisk Films Kompagni in the 1920s. She also appeared in German and Swedish films. Kan Kvinder fejle / Can women fail? (A.W. Sandberg, 1924) was partly shot in Liguria, Italy. Sandberg told the newspapers the film crew started filming in Trieste and at Lake Garda, but in two days, two and a half meters of snow fell, forcing the crew to withdraw to Verona and Venice. As winter still chased the crew, they moved on to Bordighera on the Italian Riviera. Here, they finally got the weather they wanted, and the images were recorded under a scorching sun in 30-35 degree heat, according to A.W. Sandberg. After returning from Italy, Interior shots were taken in Valby, where, among other things, a set was built that envisioned "a wealthy home." To make the interior as compelling as possible, Sandberg almost emptied his apartment at Nørregade to provide props, such as chairs with embroidery made by his wife Elsa Fröhlich, paintings of snowy landscapes made by his father-in-law Thaulow, and an old dresser with bronze female statues by sculptor Jean René Gauguin, son of painter Paul Gauguin.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 642. Gunnar Tolnaes and Karina Bell in the Danish film Wienerbarnet / The Little Austrian (A.W. Sandberg, 1924).

Gunnar Tolnaes (1879-1940) had his most famous performance as an Indian prince in the Danish orientalist melodrama Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru / The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (1917), with Lilly Jacobson. It was so popular that it had a Danish sequel in 1919 and a German sequel in 1921. After a substantial film career in Denmark, he alternated acting in German films as well as in Danish films until the end of the silent era.

Danish actress Karina Bell (1898-1979) was one of the most popular stars of the Nordisk Films Kompagni in the 1920s. She also appeared in German and Swedish films.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 656. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

With her exotic looks, Nita Naldi was one of the most famous Hollywood vamps of the 1920s. She notably co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in three movies. Interestingly enough, she also had a leading role in an early Alfred Hitchcock film. About her career, she once wittily declared: "They had ermine tails and paradises in my hair and a couple of snakes coiled around my neck. In real life, believe me, any man of sensibilities would have run 20 miles to get out of my sight".


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 812. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Beautiful Barbara La Marr (1896–1926) was an American film actress, noted for her beauty and her tempestuous marital history. After some early experience in vaudeville, she became a screenplay writer and then a performer, appearing with Douglas Fairbanks and others in over thirty movies, as well as dancing on Broadway. Her hedonistic lifestyle in Hollywood, with heavy alcohol dependence, led to her early death.

And check out our Flickr album on J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag.