Mila Parély

Charismatic, mysterious Mila Parély (1917-2012) was a French actress of Polish ancestry. She was best known for the roles as Geneviève in Renoir's La Règle du jeu (1939) and as Belle's sister in Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (1946).


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. 6. Photo: Star.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 253. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 101. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

One of the greatest films in the history of cinema

Mila Parély was born as Olga Colette Peszynsky in Paris in 1917. She was of Polish ancestry. In 1932, Parély started her career in the short film Vive le sport / The Freshman, now considered lost. In the following years, she played several small roles, like a typist in the fantasy Liliom (Fritz Lang, 1934), ‘Marceline’ in Mister Flow (Robert Siodmak, 1936), a dancing girl in Le drame de Shanghaï / The Shanghai Drama (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1938), and a servant in Remontons les Champs-Élysées (Sacha Guitry, 1938). During this period, she also worked as a singer and made an American tour with the orchestra of Rudy Vallee.

She had her breakthrough in the cinema as Geneviève, the mistress of married Robert (Marcel Dalio) in La Règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939). Renoir’s masterpiece is a comedy of manners that depicts members of upper-class French society and their servants just before the beginning of World War II, showing their moral callousness on the eve of impending destruction.

La Règle du jeu was the most expensive French film up to that time, with its original budget of 2.5 million francs increased to five million, but it proved to be a critical and financial disaster. Although the original negative was destroyed in World War II, La Règle du jeu was restored under Jean Renoir's supervision to its original length (minus one short scene) in the late 1950s, debuting to great acclaim at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. Since then, La Règle du jeu has often been called one of the greatest films in the history of cinema.

Another interesting film was Les anges du péché / Angels of Sin (1943), the first feature film directed by Robert Bresson. Parély also appeared in the drama Le Lit à colonnes / The Four-poster (Roland Tual, 1942), starring Fernand Ledoux and Jean Marais. She was engaged to the handsome Marais in 1942, but they separated in 1944. Jean Marais was homosexual and the long-term lover of French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Cocteau blessed their proposed marriage because he wanted Marais to be happy. After their separation, Parély and Marais co-starred in Cocteau’s romantic fantasy La Belle et la Bête / Beauty And The Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). Parély played the sister of Belle (Josette Day).

Mark Pittillo at AllMovie: “[Jean Cocteau] gives the film a shimmering, romantic look, and the brilliant costume and set design. The Beast's makeup, in particular, works beautifully; it's just realistic enough to be convincing, while allowing Marais to emote through his eyes and subtle facial tics. The unforgettable sets, which include human-arm candelabras and moving statues, are a marvel of impressionistic romanticism, filled with symbolism that hints at the story's darker implications. Forget Disney -- this is the closest anyone's come to capturing the essence of a fairy tale on film.”


French postcard by A. Noyer (A.N.), Paris, no. 1233. Photo: R. (Raymond) Voinquel.


French postcard by E. C., Paris, no. 105. Photo: Pathé.

A small-town whorehouse

In 1947, Mila Parély married Scottish racing driver Tomas ‘Taso’ Mathieson. Between 1930 and 1955, he entered more than 30 races, including multiple times the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The couple would stay together till his death in 1991.

Parély continued to play supporting parts in French and British films like Dernier refuge / Last Refuge (Marc Maurette, 1947), based on 'Le Locataire' by Georges Simenon, the British thriller Snowbound (David MacDonald, 1948) starring Dennis Price, and the drama Mission à Tanger / Mission in Tangier (André Hunebelle, 1949) starring Raymond Rouleau.

Her best film of the 1950s is the anthology Le Plaisir / House of Pleasure (1952), directed by Max Ophüls and based on three stories by Guy de Maupassant. In the episode La Maison Tellier, Parély played one of the employees of a small-town whorehouse, who goes out for a day to the country to visit the communion of the niece of Madame. She also played the female lead in the British crime film Blood Orange / Three Stops to Murder (Terence Fisher, 1953) opposite Tom Conway.

After that, she only worked for television and played in the thriller Jet Storm (Cy Endfield, 1958), but her footage ended up on the floor of the editing room. In the late 1950s, Parély retired to take care of her husband, Taso Mathieson, who had been seriously injured in a near-death accident. After living in England and Portugal, they moved to Vichy, France, where Parély organised several cultural and artistic events. Mathieson concentrated on his writing and his collection of photographs, together with Parély. He wrote various authoritative books, including 'Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914'.

In the late 1980s, Parély returned to acting briefly. She played a countess in the film Comédie d'été / Summer Interlude (Daniel Vigne, 1989) with Maruschka Detmers, and also appeared in a TV film. In 1997, her final role followed in a short film, just like how her career had started. Mila Parély died in 2012, aged 94, in Vichy.


French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 50. Photo: U.F.P.C.


French postcard by Edition d'Art BelFrance, no. 905. Photo: Sirius-Gaumont. Publicity still for Le cavalier noir / The Black Knight (Gilles Grangier, 1945).

Sources: Mark Pittillo (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Yvan Foucart (Les Gens du Cinéma - French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Jon Hall

Good-looking, well-built actor Jon Hall (1915-1979) is best known for his exotic heroes in Universal Pictures. He had his breakthrough in John Ford's The Hurricane (1937), portrayed the Invisible Man twice and costarred with Maria Montez in six exotic adventure-romances. In the 1950s, he became one of the the most popular TV heroes among kids.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1244. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn.


British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 121. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn. Publicity still for The Hurricane (John Ford, 1937).


Vintage card. Photo: Universal. Maria Montez and Jon Hall in White Savage (Arthur Lubin, 1943).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 220. Photo: United Artists. Jon Hall in Kit Carson (George B. Seitz, 1940).

Six Technicolour adventures with Maria Montez

Jon Hall (sometimes John Hall) was born Charles Felix Locher in Fresno, California, in 1915. He was raised in Tahiti by his father, the Swiss-born former world skating champion-turned-actor Felix Locher. According to IMDb, his mother was a Tahitian princess. Jon was a nephew of writer James Norman Hall, the author, along with Charles Nordhoff, of the novel 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. He was also a cousin of cinematographer Conrad L. Hall and of Ben Chapman, who played the creature (when out of the water) in the cult classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954).

Hall began his career using the name 'Charles Locher'. His first performance was in a local theatre production of 'M'Lord the Duke', replacing Robert Taylor, who had just signed with MGM. His appearance on stage in 'Murder on a Mountain' at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre in Beverly Hills earned him a contract at Warner Bros. Nothing happened with the Warners contract. He began acting in minor roles. His first film was Women Must Dress (Reginald Barker, 1935) at Monogram Pictures. Hall signed with 20th Century Fox and appeared in Charlie Chan in Shanghai (James Tinling, 1935), featuring Warner Oland. After that, the studio released him from his contract.

Hall had the lead in a low-budget adventure movie, The Lion Man (John P. McCarthy, 1936), based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He was rejected for the lead of the Flash Gordon serial (1936-1940), and the part eventually went to Buster Crabbe. In 1937, John Hall achieved notable success. He was cast by Samuel Goldwyn opposite another relative newcomer, Dorothy Lamour, in the big budget South Seas tale, The Hurricane (John Ford, 1937), based on a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Hall starred as the native Terangi, whose wrongful imprisonment is the focus of the lavish and spectacular drama. Hall was tailor-made for the role. He was of half-Tahitian descent, had an appealing torso (he's topless for most of the film), and could swim like a fish. In Haiti, he presumably had been a swimming champion. Hurricane became a big success.

Under contract to Sam Goldwyn, John Hall was now earning a good salary, although it took him a while to find his next project. After two and a half years inactive, he made three films in quick succession. He made Sailor's Lady (Allan Dwan, 1940), a so-so B comedy with Nancy Kelly that was developed by Goldwyn and sold to 20th Century Fox, South of Pago Pago (Alfred E. Green, 1940), a South Seas adventure with Frances Farmer, for producer Edward Small, and the Western Kit Carson (George B. Seitz, 1940), a biographical film of the frontiersman's life. Mike Haberfelner at Search My Trash: "The Western was a genre a man of Hall's slightly exotic good looks just wasn't cut out for, plus he lacked the charisma to properly come off as tough guy." Goldwyn refused to lend him out to Alexander Korda for Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, a.o., 1940), but eventually Hall was contracted to Universal, where he usually played leads in adventure films.

He is the only actor to have portrayed an Invisible Man more than once in the original Universal series, in Invisible Agent (Edwin L. Marin, 1942) with Ilona Massey and Peter Lorre and The Invisible Man's Revenge (Ford Beebe, 1944). He is also notable for having made six popular Technicolor adventure films with Maria Montez: Arabian Nights (John Rawlins, 1942), White Savage (Arthur Lubin, 1943), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Arthur Lubin, 1944), Cobra Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1944), Gypsy Wildcat (Roy William Neil, 1944), and Sudan (John Rawlins, 1945).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 296. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn.


French postcard by Erpé, no. 626. Photo: Film Samuel Goldwyn.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1392. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Jon Hall and Nancy Kelly in Sailor's Lady (Allan Dwan, 1940).


Irish postcard by GFD. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Hysterically awful rubber-suit monster romp

Jon Hall maintained his popularity until the end of the 1940s. Then he moved to television and starred in the series Ramar of the Jungle (1952-1954), which was set in Africa and India. Hall obviously tried to emulate the then-popular Jungle Jim films. Lew Landers was the director, and Wilbur McGaugh was assistant director.It made him big TV hero of boomer kids through original airings and reruns. He competed with George Reeves as Superman for the most popular TV hero of the 1950s. Later, Hall made a pilot for an unsold series, Knight of the South Seas for his own company, Lovina Productions. It was not picked up for series but the pilot was edited into a film, Hell Ship Mutiny (Lee Sholem, Elmo Williams, 1957), with Hall, John Carradine and Peter Lorre. He returned to feature films with the South Seas adveture Forbidden Island (Charles B. Griffith, 1959), made at Columbia. Hall played a skindiver searching for a hidden treasure, but, now in his mid-40's, he was getting a bit old for this sort of role.

In 1965, Jon Hall returned to the big screen. He directed and played the bad guy in the Cult Horror film The Beach Girls and the Monster (Jon Hall, 1965). At AllMovie, Cavett Binion described the it as a "hysterically awful rubber-suit monster romp" with "a certain ugly charm, according to its 'so-bad-it's-good' status". The Official Razzie Movie Guide names it one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made". Hall also shot some additional footage for another Cult Horror film, The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (Michael A. Hoey, 1966), starring Mamie van Doren.

Jon Hall made his final two television appearances on Perry Mason: in 1963 he played Max Randall in The Case of the Festive Felon, and in 1965 he played Lt. Kia in The Case of the Feather Cloak. Apart from the occasional underwater photography on films like the eco-documentary Survival of Spaceship Earth (Dirk Wayne Summers, 1972), he retired from the film industry. Hall was married to singer Frances Langford from 1934 until 1955, and also twice married and divorced actress Raquel Torres. His third wife was a psychiatrist. They married in 1969 and lived in Los Angeles with her two sons and a daughter.

When he was stricken with bladder cancer, Jon Hall's health declined to a point that he found unbearable, and after telling friends that the pain of his illness was overwhelming, he shot himself in the head in North Hollywood in 1979. He was 64. He was interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Court of Liberty, in the same row as Buster Keaton.

His last public appearance was just a few months before his death, at the premiere of Hurricane (Jan Troell, 1979), the remake of his big break. Jon Hall was also an inventor and highly skilled aviator. He held patents on an underwater camera, 'optivision' lenses, and the design of PT boat hulls for the US Navy. Anf his film legacy? Mike Haberfelner: "To claim that Jon Hall had any lasting effects on film history would be nothing short of an exaggeration, but many of his films as well as his TV-series Ramar of the Jungle can be seen as mirrors of their time and great pieces of nostalgia, and despite or because of all their inconsistencies, their camp style, their budgetary restraints, their narrative shortcomings, they attract new audiences even today."


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A. 4239. Photo: United Artists / Constantin Film. Publicity still for South of Pago Pago (Alfred E. Green, 1940).


Vintage postcard by K. Photo: United Artists. Jon Hall and Frances Farmer in South of Pago Pago (Alfred E. Green, 1940).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Paramount.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag. Photo: Columbia Pictures. Publicity still for When the Redskins Rode (Lew Landers, 1951).

Sources: Mike Haberfelner (Search My Trash), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Charlotte Böcklin

Charlotte Böcklin (1894-1981) was a German actress of the silent screen. Between 1918 and 1926, she worked with directors such as Alexander von Antalffy, Lorenz Bätz, Carl Boese, Arthur Gunsburg, Gerhard Lamprecht, Max Obal and Otto Rippert. Her most famous film is the white slave drama Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1918).


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 353/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 353/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass.

The hyenas of lust

Little is known about German actress Charlotte Böcklin. We found that she was born in 1894, and she probably started her silent film career in 1917 in the short comedy Eine Verzwickte Geschichte / A Complicated Story (Carl Heinz Wolff, 1917) with Fritz Junkermann. She soon became a popular film actress.

Rather cheerful was the - nowadays forgotten - two-reeler series around the film character 'Krause', embodied by actor Carl Neisser. Böcklin acted in two episodes, Ganz ohne Krause / Completely free of Krause (Lorenz Bätz, Albert Paul, 1918) and Papa Krause (Lorenz Bätz, Albert Paul, 1918). In these short comedies, she either played the 'disreputable' wife or the battered, fate-stricken suffering woman. Karl Figdor wrote a whole series of scripts for the Krause films, while Hans Hyan and Marco Brociner each wrote the scripts for two films.

Böcklin showed her range when she played a demi-mondaine in one of the popular crime films of the era, Die Edelsteinsammlung / The Gem Collection (Viggo Larsen, 1918) with Danish actor-director Viggo Larsen as the detective.

In 1919, Charlotte Böcklin starred in Otto Rippert's two-part white slave trade drama Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1918). In the first part, Das Schicksal der Änne Wolter / The Fate of Anne Wolter, the pitiful Anne Wolter or Änne Wolter (Charlotte Böcklin) falls in the hands of scheming white slave traders. In the second part, Hyänen der Lust / Hyenas of Lust, Käthe Haack and Grete Weixler played two naive girlfriends, who also became victims of the white slave trade.

The whole film premiered at the Berlin Marmorhaus on 1 August 1919. The cinematography was by the notable Carl Hoffmann, the script was by Julius Sternheim, and the film was produced by Erich Pommer. Director Otto Rippert was a former stage actor who had started his film career as the Captain in the Titanic disaster film In Nacht und Eis / Shipwrecked in Icebergs (Mime Misu, 1912). He became a film director for Continental Kunstfilm, where he did some 10 films. But he had his breakthrough in 1916 with the internationally commercially and artistically successful serial film Homunculus (Otto Rippert, 1916), starring Olaf Fönss. It was a coproduction of Deutsche Bioscop and Erich Pommer's Decla, and from then on, he worked for Decla.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 555/3. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin in Der Weg der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Anne Wolter / The Road to Damnation (Otto Rippert, 1918). Böcklin sits far right.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 555/5. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Anne Wolter / The Road to Damnation (Otto Rippert, 1918). The man may be the white slave trader Ignaz Czyslow (Guido Herzfeld), while Toni Tetzlaff played the brothel owner.

A woman without a conscience

As a film actress, Charlotte Böcklin peaked around 1919. She appeared with Conrad Veidt in Die Okarina (Uwe Jenss Krafft, 1919), based on the novel 'Good as Gold' (1912) by the Danish author Karin Michaëlis. In Das goldene Buch / The Golden Book (1919), she acted opposite Alexander Granach, and in Die schwarze Marion / The Black Marion (Uwe Jenss Krafft, 1919), she played next to Reinhold Schünzel.

Her roles ranged from the demi-mondaine in crime films to a social outlaw in Die schwarze Marion / The Black Marion and in Die Sumpfhanne (Carl Boese, 1919), with Ernst Dernburg and Ferdinand von Alten as her partners.

Böcklin was the 'Asphalt Rose' Hilde Brunn in the metropolitan crime scene Die Asphaltrose (Richard Löwenbein 1922), and was the unbecoming lover Aline Puvogel in the film adaptation of Thomas Mann's classic novel Die Buddenbrooks / The Buddenbrooks (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1923) with Alfred Abel.

Charlotte Böcklin finally played Felicitas Alberti, the 'woman without a conscience', in presumably her last silent film, Die Frau ohne Gewissen (Richard Strauss, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. While her career was relatively short, she had made quite an impact with her 30 film roles, including some impressive parts.

During 1919-1920, she was married to the writer Hans Egon Karl Rudolf Kurt Freiherr von Barnekow. Charlotte Böcklin died in 1981 in Berlin.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 555/7. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Änne Wolter / The Road to Damnation (Otto Rippert, 1918). The name Änne Wolter is sometimes also written as Anne Wolter.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 555/8. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Änne Wolter / The Road to Damnation (Otto Rippert, 1918).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German), Filmportal.de and IMDb.

Helmut Griem

Handsome and suave German actor Helmut Griem (1932-2004) had a long standing career as stage actor but he is also known for his international film and television work. He is best remembered for the classic musical Cabaret (1972). As the elegant, fabulously decadent baron Max he has trysts with both Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and Brian Roberts (Michael York).


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 3432. Photo: Bavariafilm / NERO-NDF / Lilo. Helmut Griem in Bis zum Ende aller Tage / Girl from Hong Kong (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961).


Austrian postcard by Kellner, no. 87110. Photo: Divina / Gloria / Marszalek. Helmut Griem in Der Traum von Lieschen Müller / The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (Helmut Käutner, 1961).


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. H. G. 1. Photo: Joachim G. Jung. Helmut Griem in Oggi a Berlino / East Zone, West Zone (Piero Vivarelli, 1962).


Vintage press photo. Dirk Bogarde as Friedrich Bruckmann and Helmut Griem as SS-Obersturmbandführer Aschenbach in The Damned / La caduta degli dei / Violence et passion (Luchino Visconti, 1969).


German postcard with autograph.

The Damned

Helmut Griem was born in Hamburg in 1932. He planned to be a journalist, but, after studying literature, science and philosophy, he developed an interest in acting, and made his stage début with a role in N. Richard Nash's 'The Rainmaker' (1956).

Throughout his career, Griem would be primarily a stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Staatliche Schauspielbühnen in Berlin, the Munich Kammerspiele, and finally in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, also in Munich.

He started playing in films in 1960. His debut was Fabrik der Offiziere / The Factory of SS Officers (Frank Wisbar, 1960) with Horst Frank. The next year he appeared in Bis zum Ende aller Tage / Girl from Hong Kong (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961), Barbara - Wild wie das Meer / Barbara (Frank Wisbar, 1961) with Harriet Andersson, and the comedy Der Traum von Lieschen Müller / The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (Helmut Käutner, 1961) featuring Sonja Ziemann. That year he won the Bambi Award, the oldest media award in Germany. In 1976 he would win his second Bambi.

In the following years, he played in European productions such as the Italian war film Oggi a Berlino / East Zone, West Zone (Piero Vivarelli, 1962) and the French production À cause, à cause d'une femme / Because, Because of a Woman (Michel Deville, 1963) starring Jacques Charrier and Mylène Demongeot.

In 1969 Griem had his international breakthrough as the sexy, seductive and thoroughly power-hungry SS officer Aschenbach in Visconti's La caduta degli dei / The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969). This film about the dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist family during the reign of the Third Reich starred Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Charlotte Rampling and Helmut Berger. Three years later, Griem appeared again opposite Berger in Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1972) about the mad and tragic king of Bavaria.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 1603. Photo: Divina / Gloria / Marszalek. Helmut Griem in Der Traum von Lieschen Müller / The Dream of Lieschen Mueller (Helmut Käutner, 1961).


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag. Photo: Bavaria / NERO / NDF / Lilo. Publicity still for Bis zum Ende aller Tage / Girl from Hong Kong (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961) with Akiko Wakabayashi.


German press photo. Helmut Griem and Akiko Wakabayashi in Bis zum Ende aller Tage / Girl from Hong Kong (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961).


German press photo. Helmut Griem and Akiko Wakabayashi in Bis zum Ende aller Tage / Girl from Hong Kong (Franz Peter Wirth, 1961).


Vintage lobbycard. Helmut Griem as SS-Obersturmbandführer Aschenbach and Helmut Berger as Martin Essenbeck in The Damned / La caduta degli dei / Violence et passion (Luchino Visconti, 1969).


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Oda Sternberg, München.

Bisexual baron

Helmut Griem's most famous role is the rich, bisexual Baron Maximilian von Heune in the Oscar-winning Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972). Reviewing Cabaret in Monthly Film Bulletin, John Russell Taylor noted: "Helmut Griem as Max manages just the right ironical throwaway charm and erotic confidence to convince us that he could have captivated both sexes with equal ease."

Griem also played memorable parts opposite Brian Keith in The McKenzie Break (Lamont Johnson, 1970), opposite Senta Berger in Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass / Morals of Ruth Halbfass (Volker Schlöndorff, 1972), opposite Hanna Schygulla in Ansichten eines Clowns / The Clown (Voytech Jasny, 1975), opposite Jacques Perrin in Il deserto dei tartari / The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976), and opposite Romy Schneider in La passante de Sans-Souci / The Passerby (Jacques Rouffio, 1982).

In these films, Griem represented the archetypal arrogant, duplicitous and sometimes downright ruthless German. One of his biggest international films was Voyage of the Damned (Stuart Rosenberg, 1976), the true story of a ship full of Jewish refugees from Germany who are refused entry to a succession of foreign ports, just months before the outbreak of war.

In the early 1980s, he also appeared in small but interesting German films, including Malou (Janine Meerapfel, 1981), Stachel im Fleisch/A Thorn in the Flesh (Heidi Genée, 1981), and the biography Caspar David Friedrich - Grenzen der Zeit / Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich (Ulrich Schamoni, 1986). On TV he appeared in the mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980) and starred in the NBC series Peter the Great (Marvin J. Chomsky, Lawrence Schiller, 1986), portraying the formidable Tsar's lifelong friend and 'right hand' Alexander Menshikov, alongside Maximilian Schell.

Griem stopped acting in film in the late 1980s but continued to appear on German television and on stage. In the theatre, he also worked as a director of such plays as 'Entertaining Mr. Sloane' by Joe Orton, 'Long Day's Journey into Night' by Eugene O'Neill, and 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller in which he also played Willy Loman. His last film was Brennendes Herz / Burning Heart (Peter Patzak, 1995) with Dominique Sanda and Werner Herzog. Helmut Griem died in 2004 in a hospital in Munich, Germany. He was 72.

Quote from Cabaret:
Brian: Screw Maximilian!
Sally: I do.
Brian: So do I.
Sally: You two bastards!
Brian: Two? Two? Shouldn't that be three?


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. E 86. French affiche with Liza Minelli in Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972).


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Oda Sternberg, München.


Trailer of The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969). Source: troz2000 (YouTube).


Trailer of The McKenzie Break (Lamont Johnson, 1970). Source: MovieZoneAustralia (YouTube).


Trailer of Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972). Source: Warnervod (YouTube).


Trailer of Il deserto dei tartari / The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976). Source: Danios 12345 (YouTube).

Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Brian Pendreigh (The Herald), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Demi Moore

Demi Moore (1962) is an American actress and film producer who had her breakthrough with the Brat Pack film St. Elmo's Fire (1985). By 1995, Moore was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood thanks to such blockbusters as Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992) and Indecent Proposal (1993). At the turn of the century, Moore underwent several other setbacks. She made a glorious comeback when she won a Golden Globe for The Substance (2024).


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


Belgian postcard in the 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (The 50 most beautiful women of the century) series by P-Magazine, no. 7. Photo: Lance Steadler / Outline.


British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd, London, no. SPC 2572.


English postcard, no. C095. Caption: Demi Moore - Car.

The girl of the Brat Pack

Demi Moore was born Demetria Gene Guynes in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1962. Her father, Air Force airman Charles Harmon, left her then 18-year-old mother Victoria (née King) after a two-month marriage and before Demi was born. When Demi Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper salesman, who she later saw as her real father.

The family moved frequently because of her stepfather's work, more than thirty times. Her stepfather committed suicide when Demi was fifteen, two years after divorcing her mother. At age 15, Demi was raped by a friend of her mother’s, and at age 16 she dropped out of high school. Her mother, Virginia Guynes, was arrested many times, including for arson and drunk driving, and attempted suicide several times. Moore broke off contact with her in 1990 but later reconciled with her shortly before she died of cancer in 1998 at the age of 54.

In 1979, three months before her 17th birthday, Demi met the rock musician Freddy Moore, and they married in 1980. The marriage lasted four years. Moore signed with the Elite Modelling Agency and then enrolled in drama classes after being inspired by her next-door neighbour, 17-year-old German actress Nastassja Kinski. She appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the French adult magazine Oui, taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude, and made her film debut with a brief role in the teen drama Choices (Silvio Narizzano, 1981).

Her career took off in 1982 when she was cast as an investigative reporter in the popular hospital soap General Hospital (1982-1983). She celebrated her first cinema success in the romantic comedy Blame It on Rio (Stanley Donen, 1983) opposite Michael Caine. Around the same time, she became addicted to cocaine. Her big break came with the film St. Elmo's Fire (Joel Schumacher, 1985). Reportedly, she was fired by Schumacher during filming because of her drug abuse, after which she went to rehab and returned a week later. Interestingly, her character in the film, Jules, was also addicted to cocaine. St. Elmo's Fire was a huge success, and Moore and her film counterparts were counted among the 'Brat Pack', a group of young actors with a promising future. She divorced Freddy Moore and began dating her St. Elmo’s Fire costar, Emilio Estevez.

Moore progressed to more serious material when she co-starred with Rob Lowe in the romantic comedy About Last Night... (Edward Zwick, 1986). It marked a positive turning point in her career. Roger Ebert in his review: "Lowe and Moore, members of Hollywood’s 'Brat Pack,' are survivors of last summer’s awful movie about yuppie singles, St. Elmo’s Fire. This is the movie St. Elmo’s Fire should have been. Last summer’s movie made them look stupid and shallow. About Last Night… gives them the best acting opportunities either one has ever had, and they make the most of them. Moore is especially impressive. There isn’t a romantic note she isn’t required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly." By then, Demi Moore had called off her engagement to Estevez and in 1987, she married actor Bruce Willis in a ceremony conducted by musician and ordained minister Little Richard.


Vintage card, no. 799, circa 1982.


Italian postcard in the collection 'Le più belle del mondo' by Teletutto, no. 9.


Spanish postcard in the Collección Estrellas de Actualidad by Cacitel, S.L., no. 151. Retail price: 100 pts.


Vintage photo. Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins in About Last Night (Edward Zwick, 1986).

A spot on the A-list

In 1990, Demi Moore co-starred with Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in the highly successful Fantasy film Ghost (Jerry Zucker, 1990), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. The love scene between Moore and Patrick Swayze that starts in front of a potter's wheel to the sound of 'Unchained Melody' became an iconic moment in film history, and the film grossed over US$505 million at the box office.

'The highest-grossing film of that year' earned her a spot on the A-list and offered her many leading roles in films. In 1991, she received a great deal of media attention when she appeared naked on the front page of Vanity Fair, photographed by Annie Leibovitz while seven months pregnant with her second child. The photos shocked many readers not only for flaunting her pregnancy but also for suggesting that a pregnant body could be sexy. The front page was frequently imitated and parodied in the years that followed.

The next year, she starred in the blockbuster A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992), opposite Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. The following year, she scored another big film hit with the controversial Indecent Proposal (Adrian Lyne, 1993). In this film, a rich businessman (Robert Redford) presents a couple with financial problems (Moore and Woody Harrelson) with a dilemma: he gives the couple a million dollars if he can sleep with the woman.

Another blockbuster was the thriller Disclosure (Barry Levinson, 1994) with Michael Douglas. Moore produced and starred alongside Sissy Spacek and Cher in a controversial miniseries for HBO called If These Walls Could Talk (1996), a three-part anthology about abortion. The series' screenwriter, Nancy Savoca, directed two segments. In one segment, Moore played a widowed nurse in the early 1950s seeking a back-alley abortion.

 If These Walls Could Talk became HBO's highest-rated original film to date, drawing 6.9 million viewers. For the film, Moore received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film and Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Television Movie. At the time, Moore was one of the highest-paid film actresses of all time, and she was the first actress to receive more than $10 million for a film role - $12.5 million for Striptease (Andrew Bergman, 1996).


Belgian postcard by MultiChoice Kaleidoscope. Photo: Isopress / Outline / Steven Klein.


Turkish postcard by Laden, no. 98/191.


British postcard.


American freecard by Max Racks. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore as Rock Icons on the cover of Spy Magazine, December 1996.

A golden raspberry

Demi Moore did not manage to keep up the success. Striptease (Andrew Bergman, 1996) opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews, with Moore's performance being criticised. The film 'won' six Golden Raspberry Awards, including for Worst Film, Worst Actress and Worst Director. Striptease was a respectable financial success, grossing $113 million worldwide. However, Moore received intense backlash in the media, often being portrayed as greedy and being called "Gimme Moore." Moore also starred in The Juror (Brian Gibson, 1996). The thriller was a box office bomb and was heavily panned by critics.

Her two successes at the time were as the voice of the gipsy woman Esmeralda in Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, 1996) and the voice of Dallas Grimes in the animated comedy Beavis and Butt-head Do America (Mike Judge, 1996), alongside her husband Bruce Willis. Then followed her long-cherished project, G.I. Jane (Ridley Scott, 1997), for which the actress even shaved her head. Her performance was largely praised by critics, and budgeted at $50 million, the film was a moderate commercial success, grossing $98.4 million worldwide. Demi Moore took a break in her acting career.

As a producer, she did have a few successes with the three Austin Powers films, including Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997). Moore and Bruce Willis separated in 1998 and divorced in 2000. Together they have three children: Rumer Glen Willis (born 1988), Scout LaRue Willis (1991) and Tallulah Belle Willis (1994). In 2003, she began a much-discussed relationship with the 15-year-younger actor Ashton Kutcher, whom she married in 2005. That same year, she returned to the big screen by playing the villain in the sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (McG, 2005), starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.

Since 2006, Moore has been the face and muse of cosmetics brand Helena Rubinstein. On-screen, she appeared in the ensemble cast of the acclaimed dramas Bobby (Emilio Estevez, 2006) and Margin Call (J. C. Chandor, 2011) with Kevin Spacey. Moore was expecting a child when she had a late miscarriage. She began drinking again and also abused painkillers. Moore and Kutcher split in 2011, and their divorce was finalised in 2013. After suffering a drug-related seizure in 2012, Moore entered rehab. Incidentally, she appeared in films such as the black comedy Rough Night / Girls' Night Out (Lucia Aniello, 2017) starring Scarlett Johansson. In 2019, Moore released her book 'Inside Out' about her life, which reached the top spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. Since early 2022, Moore has been in a relationship with Swiss celebrity chef Daniel Humm.

In 2024, Demi Moore played socialite Ann Woodward in the TV miniseries Feud: Capote vs. the Swans. Later that year, she made a glorious comeback in the cinema in the British-French Horror film The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024). She played an ageing actress who discovers a medical treatment that will make her appear younger, though at a great cost. The film pokes fun at the American film industry, the ideal of eternal youth, and the cosmetics industry. The actress received widespread acclaim for her performance. Monica Castillo at Roger.Ebert.com: "The Substance works as well as it does because of Moore’s unbridled performance as a woman struggling with self-hatred, society’s treatment of her, and a newfound dependency on a miracle drug. In one particularly heartbreaking scene, Elizabeth stands in front of a mirror, fussing over the final details of her makeup and outfit. Although she looks glamorous as anyone could hope to look, her face betrays a dissatisfied stare as she sees more flaws than beauty before her." Moore was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy.


European postcard by Moviegoers, no. 0529051999. Demi Moore in The Butcher's Wife (Terry Hughes, 1991).


British postcard, no. C034. Caption: Demi Moore, Swimming Pool.


Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-284.


Italian postcard by CIAK. Photo: Dave Stewart / Colorific / G. Neri.

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Monica Castillo (RogerEbert.com), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia (Dutch, English and German), and IMDb.