Easy Living with Mitchell Leisen

Cinema Ritrovato 2026 presents an interesting section in 'The Cinephile's Heaven' on Hollywood director and production designer Mitchell Leisen, curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht: "In a light, sophisticated no-man’s-land (yes, largely inhabited by women) between romantic comedy, screwball, and pure Paramount aestheticism, the cinema of Mitchell Leisen comes to life. A former silent-era costume and set designer, Leisen became renowned for classics such as Easy Living (1937), Hold Back the Dawn (1940), and Midnight (1939), and was the only Hollywood director to sign his name in his films’ credits. No auteur theory was needed to recognise his unmistakable qualities: an effortless narrative flow, impeccable design, and sparkling, innuendo-laced dialogue – sometimes written by Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, or Charles Brackett – alongside heroines as charming as they were uncompromising. In his films, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck, and Jean Arthur radiated wit, grace, and razor-sharp comic timing. They twisted conventions as their encounters with men – often played by Ray Milland or Fred MacMurray – spiralled from mishap to romantic resolution." For EFSP, we selected 18 postcards of Leisen's films.


Spanish postcard by Productos Compactos, no. 44523. Ray Milland and Jean Arthur in Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen, 1937).


French postcard by EC, no. 561. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Fredric March in Death Takes a Holiday (Mitchell Leisen, 1934).


Dutch postcard. Dorothy Lamour in Swing High, Swing Low (Mitchell Leisen, 1937). Costume by Travis Banton. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


German collector card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount. Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert in Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, 1939).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 214. Photo: Eugene Robert Richee / Paramount. Veronica Lake in I Wanted Wings (Mitchell Leisen, 1941).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 204. Photo: Paramount. Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark (Mitchell Leisen, 1944).

The women in Leisen’s films are front and centre

James Mitchell Leisen was born in 1898 in Menominee, Michigan. Leisen grew up in St. Louis with his mother, following her divorce from his father, a partner in a brewery company. From an early age, 'Mitch' suffered the effects of a poorly performed foot operation, which left him with a permanent limp. This condition had a lasting impact on his life. His stepfather sent him to military school because he and his mother were concerned about what they perceived to be his lack of masculinity. Leisen later attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied architecture. After his studies, he moved to Chicago to work in the advertising section of the art department for the Chicago Tribune. He held a second job with the architectural firm Marshall & Fox, while acting in his spare time.

Leisen moved to Los Angeles in an effort to enter the film industry. Although he had little success as an actor, he found work designing sets for community theatre. He was soon hired as a costume designer by Cecil B. DeMille, beginning with Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919). He became a production designer for Don’t Change Your Husband (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919). DeMille was known for his despotic nature, but Leisen was one of his few colleagues at Paramount with whom he got along. We worked for DeMille until 1922, then moved on to United Artists to design costumes for Douglas Fairbanks, such as Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924). Leisen later also did the production design for De Mille's films The King of Kings (1927), Dynamite (1929), Madam Satan (1930) and The Sign of the Cross (1932), for which he worked both as a production designer and assistant director.

At the Academy Awards ceremony in April 1930, Mitchell Leisen was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Production Design category for his work on the film Dynamite (Cecil B. DeMille, 1929). He worked in the dual capacity of costume designer and art director at MGM (1929-1931) and at Paramount (1932-1933). Then he became Paramount's most reliable contract director (1933-1951), noted for visual elegance and for his ability to direct actresses. He continued to design costumes for many of his cast members well into his later directing career. After serving as the assistant director to Stuart Walker on two films in 1933, Leisen was given his chance to solo direct Cradle Song (1933). Then he directed the elegantly made allegory Death Takes a Holiday (1934). Fredric March played Death incarnate, who visits an Italian villa to observe humanity in action and then falls in love with a woman (Evelyn Venable) who gives up her life to be with him.

In 1935, Leisen had his breakthrough. Britannica: "Hands Across the Table (1935) established a template Leisen would use repeatedly in other romantic comedies: a strong independent woman cannot prevent herself from falling in love with a man who is undeniably charming but does not bring much else to the table. This time, an effervescent Carole Lombard played a manicurist who gives up her fortune-hunting ways after becoming smitten with a stone-broke playboy (Fred MacMurray)." The Screwball Comedy made Lombard one of Paramount's great female stars alongside Claudette Colbert, and established Lombard and MacMurray as a screen couple. Leisen got along particularly well with Colbert, who delivered one of her finest performances in his witty Screwball Comedy Midnight (1939), scripted by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. Colbert starred as a showgirl in Paris who is hired by a millionaire (John Barrymore) to impersonate a Hungarian countess as part of a plan to forestall the potential infidelity of his wife (Mary Astor). Colbert, known to be extremely concerned with her appearance and for her neurosis of only showing the left side of her profile, was always directed by Leisen on aesthetic matters, but otherwise needed almost no direction.

In many of his films at Paramount Pictures, female characters were central to the narrative, and their perspectives shaped the story. He was a typical 'woman’s director' also because of his close working relationships with actresses. Britannica: "[His films] were often dominated by strong female leads such as Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Olivia de Havilland, Claudette Colbert, and Carole Lombard, who were rarely paired with a male actor of equal stature or presence. The women in Leisen’s films were front and centre; their stories were the story." Leisen also got along well with Jean Arthur, another strong actress with a very particular 'good side' (this time her right side). She delivered one of her best performances in Easy Living (1937). The film itself is a classic Screwball Comedy with mistaken identity, misapprehensions, and serendipity at the centre of the story. Arthur plays an office worker who becomes the accidental owner of a valuable fur coat thrown out by a wealthy banking tycoon (Edward Arnold). Later, she is involved with a bumbling waiter (Ray Milland) who, unbeknownst to her, is the banker’s slumming scion.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 40/1. Photo: IFA / United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924). Production design: Mitchell Leisen.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 86/2. Photo: National Film. Postcard for the American silent epic The King of Kings (Cecil B. DeMille, 1927). Production design: Mitchell Leisen. Caption: Mary Magdalene. The charioteer was played by Noble Johnson, while Jacqueline Logan played Mary Magdalene.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 86/6. Photo: National-Film. Victor Varconi, H.B. Warner, and Rudolph Schildkraut in King of Kings (Cecil B. De Mille, 1927). Production design: Mitchell Leisen. Caption: Caiaphas accuses Jesus before Pontius Pilate.


Italian postcard by Cinema-Illustrazione, Milano, Serie 2, no. 30. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Kay Johnson and Reginald Denny in Madam Satan (Cecil B. DeMille, 1930). Production design: Mitchell Leisen.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 176/12. Photo: Paramount. Elissa Landi in the American epic The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932), based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett. Production design: Mitchell Leisen.


Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam-Z., no. B 299. Photo: Paramount. Dorothea Wieck in Cradle Song (Mitchell Leisen, 1933).

A bold and flamboyant exploration of the world of dreams

Mitchell Leisen's forte were comedies and romances. Leisen’s first film of the 1940s, Remember the Night (1940), featured a funny script by Preston Sturges and starred Fred MacMurray again, this time opposite Barbara Stanwyck. She played a recidivist shoplifter who gets caught at Christmastime. A softhearted prosecutor (MacMurray) takes her home during the court’s holiday recess to his family in Indiana, where they fall in love. Quite dark is Hold Back the Dawn, the third and last of the Wilder films, which lacks the sparkling surface of farce. Stuck in a grim Mexican border town, a Romanian gigolo (Charles Boyer) marries a virginal schoolteacher (Olivia de Havilland) purely to immigrate to the United States. Leisen's best films were often scripted by Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder. In the space of three years, he directed three hugely successful films based on screenplays by Wilder and Charles Brackett. Although their success was very important in helping Wilder move into directing himself, Wilder never had a good word to say about Leisen or his abilities as a filmmaker. At Senses of Cinema, David Melville defends Leisen: "Midnight (1939) – a frothy romantic farce directed by Leisen from a Wilder script – is a sharper and more stylish satire than Wilder’s own Sabrina (1954) or Love in the Afternoon (1957). A socially-conscious soap opera, Hold Back the Dawn (1941) – again, written by Wilder but directed by Leisen – packs a far greater punch than Wilder’s own Ace in the Hole (1951). Lacking Wilder’s pervasive sourness and contempt, Hold Back the Dawn views its hicks and whores and schemers through a veil of sympathy, suggesting they might have reasons to act as they do" Some critics assigned the lion’s share of the credit for Easy Living (1937), to Preston Sturges’s clever screenplay, whereas others praised Leisen for deftly preventing that script from being overly talky. In either case, Sturges was unhappy with the handling of his material by Leisen. Sturges accused him of being more interested in the set design than the story and claimed that his disappointment led him to become a director.

When Sturges and Wilder turned to directing their own films from the early 1940s, Leisen's own career began to decline. In the mid-1940s, he directed two opulent costume dramas: Frenchman’s Creek (1944), based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier. Joan Fontaine starred as an English noblewoman who becomes a dashing French pirate's (Arturo de Córdova) bride by night. Such melodramas were very popular in England at the time. The sly social comedy Kitty (1945) was a Cinderella tale set in 18th-century London that Paulette Goddard brought to life. For two years, Leisen studied the painting techniques of Thomas Gainsborough – copying the wigs, breeches, hats and fans of Georgian England to the last detail. Lady in the Dark (1944) was Leisen's version of the inventive Broadway musical of the same name by Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and Ira Gershwin. Ginger Rogers plays a fashion magazine editor plagued by indecision over men (Ray Milland, Warner Baxter and Jon Hall). She seeks help in psychoanalysis, and Leisen visualises her erotic longings in dreams. The ambitious effort received mixed reviews from critics, despite a high budget. Comparisons with the Broadway show, in which Gertrude Lawrence and Danny Kaye had important roles, were mostly negative. However, the film had some well-staged numbers, and in particular, the heroine's dream sequences in Technicolor were spectacular. Leisen supervised and contributed his creative, imaginative set and costume ideas, and made suggestions in the creation of the scenery and costume applications. He was also instrumental in creating the mink-fur skirted gown lined in jewels for Ginger Rogers' musical circus sequence.

In 1946, he helped Olivia de Havilland win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a single mother in the drama To Each His Own (1946), which won her the 1947 Academy Award for Best Actress. The film was de Havilland's first release after she had taken her long-running legal battle with Warner Brothers all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The actress won the case. De Havilland continually cited Leisen as the favourite among her directors. Britannica: "To Each His Own (1946), one of Leisen’s most highly regarded films, earned the respect of critics who praised his deft, sensitive handling of a story that might have easily descended into maudlin melodrama in another director’s hands." Toward the end of the decade, Leisen experienced a creative slump, and except for No Man of Her Own (1950), his films were less successful at the box office. No Man of Her Own features Barbara Stanwyck in a typical Joan Crawford role: a young woman with a shady past leaves her abusive lover, assumes the identity of a rich, dead woman after a train wreck, and experiences moments of happiness until the truth comes out.

At the 1951 Berlin International Film Festival, his Screwball Comedy The Mating Season (1951), starring Gene Tierney, won a Bronze Bear. It was his last big film success. It is a tart comedy, co-scripted by Charles Brackett, grounded in American class distinctions. Thelma Ritter plays a working-class woman who moves in with her ambitious yuppie son (John Lund) and his high-toned wife (Gene Tierney). She hides her identity by posing as their servant. It earned Ritter an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1951, Mitchell Leisen left Paramount to freelance, believing that the studio was giving him inferior scripts to force him to relinquish his remunerative contract. His final feature film was the musical The Girl Most Likely (1957), starring Jane Powell. As his film work ebbed away, Leisen continued to design gowns, stage nightclub acts, and decorate luxury homes. He co-directed two documentaries, Here’s Las Vegas (1964) and Spree (Walon Green, Mitchell Leisen, 1967) on the nightlife of Las Vegas. He also directed various episodes of series such as The Twilight Zone (1959-1960), Wagon Train (1961) and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967).

Mitchell Leisen married opera singer Stella Yeager, known professionally as Sandra Gahle, in 1927, though the couple lived separately for much of their marriage and remained in contact over the years. Leisen had long-term relationships with both women and men, reflecting a bisexual orientation that was largely private during his lifetime. One of his most significant relationships was with costume designer Natalie Visart, with whom he shared a close personal and professional bond. He also had a very long relationship with dancer/actor/choreographer Billy Daniel until the 1950s. In 1960, Leisen was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died of heart disease in 1972 in Woodland Hills, California, aged 74. His grave is located in the Chapel of the Pines Crematory. David Melville at Senses of Cinema: "When Mitchell Leisen died at the Motion Picture Country Home in 1972, both he and his films were largely forgotten. One of a host of old-style Hollywood directors who had not been rediscovered, re-interpreted or (in some cases) recreated as an auteur by Cahiers du cinéma, Leisen was remembered – grudgingly – as a minor artisan. A dress-designer who turned director, fashioning a string of campy gossamer romances for the lesser Great Ladies of Tinsel Town." This section at Il Cinema Ritrovato offers a new chance to rediscover his work. Melville: "Such re-evaluation is long overdue, yet it still falls short of the whole story. It overlooks, for a start, Leisen’s bold and flamboyant exploration of the world of dreams. A homosexual artist in a homophobic era and industry, Leisen sought solace (and perhaps a cure) in the arms of Freudian psychoanalysis. As his profile rose – and his relationship with dancer-choreographer Billy Daniels became an open secret – Leisen put his psychoanalytical quest onto film. His wild dream sequences in No Time for Love (1943), Lady in the Dark (1944), and Dream Girl (1948) are as close to the avant-garde as 1940s Hollywood could allow."


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 134. Photo: Paramount. Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond in Behold My Wife! (Mitchell Leisen, 1934).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9244/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount. Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond in Behold My Wife! (Mitchell Leisen, 1934).


Italian postcard by B.F.F., Firenze, no. 2044. Photo: Paramount Films. Joan Fontaine in Frenchman’s Creek (Mitchell Leisen, 1944). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Belgian postcard, no. 980. Photo: Paramount. Paulette Goddard in Kitty (Mitchell Leisen, 1945).


Spanish card by I.P. y papeleria Machi Benifayo. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich and Ray Milland in Golden Earrings (Mitchell Leisen, 1947). Spanish title: En las rayas de la mano. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 252. Photo: Paramount. Betty Hutton in Dream Girl (Mitchell Leisen, 1948).

Sources: David Melville (Senses of Cinema), Britannica, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Quo vadis? (1913)

Within the framework of the British research project Museum of Dream Worlds, EFSP collaborator Ivo Blom co-organises two workshops at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2026. The First workshop was dedicated to unique prints of silent films on Greco-Roman antiquity in the collection of the British Film Institute. Today is the second workshop, which focuses on the new restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna of Enrico Guazzoni's Quo vadis? (1913), starring Amleto Novelli and Gustavo Serena. The film will be shown tomorrow. All the postcards of this colossal epic in this post are from Ivo's collection.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The winner of the chariot race.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: "Ave Caesar, those who are about to die salute you." This image cites a famous 19th-century painting (1859) by Jean-Léon Gérôme. It was often quoted, also in the Asterix comics.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The fight of the gladiators in the arena.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The death of the gladiator. This image cites Jean-Léon Gérôme's famous painting Pollice verso (Thumbs down, 1872) and was often used in publicity for the film. In the back, the emperor Nero (Carlo Cattaneo) makes the sign of thumbs down, a sign for the conqueror to kill his adversary. Flanking Nero are left Tigellinus (Cesare Moltroni) and right Petronius (Gustavo Serena). Left of the imperial box, the Vestal Virgins are seated.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The wild animals are destined to tear the Christians to pieces. The lion keepers activate the lions under the circus before sending them above ground.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Scene from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The Christians were exposed to the beasts at the circus.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The last prayer. This scene quotes Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer (1863-1883).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The Christians in the circus, while the hungry lions approach.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). The beasts have committed the massacre of the Christians.

Where are you going?

Quo vadis? is Latin for 'Where are you going?' and alludes to the apocryphal acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he is going to Rome. Jesus says, "I am going back to be crucified again", which makes Peter go back to Rome and accept martyrdom.

Quo vadis? written by Henryk Sienkiewicz tells the love story between a young and beautiful Christian woman, Lygia, and a military tribune and Roman patrician, Marcus Vinicius. The story takes place in the city of Rome under Emperor Nero, around AD 64.

Published in instalments in three Polish dailies in 1895, Quo vadis? came out in book form in 1896 and has since been translated into more than 50 languages. This novel contributed to Sienkiewicz's Nobel Prize for literature in 1905.

In 1901, Pathé Frères produced the first screen version, Quo vadis? (Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca, 1901). It is only 65 meters long (duration: about three minutes) and was restored by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) in Paris.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Gustavo Serena as Petronius Arbiter and Amleto Novelli as Marcus Vinicius. Caption: Vinicius tells Petronius of his acts. Vinicius started to talk about the war (Chapter I).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The litter of Petronius. In front of Nero's palace, Petronius (Gustavo Serena) says goodbye to his cousin Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) and promises to have a good word to Nero about Vinicius getting Lygia.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) is presented to Nero (Carlo Cattaneo). Behind Nero stands Petronius (Gustavo Serena).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). A Roman banquet. In the front, Lea Giunchi as Lygia and Amleto Novelli as Vinicius.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: A banquet on the Palatine. The fat and drunken man in front is Giuseppe Gambardella (Vitellius), who was also famous as Checco in short Italian comedies.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Helped by Acte, Nero's former mistress, Ursus (Bruto Castellani) subtracts Lygia (Lea Giunchi) from the orgy of the imperial banquet, where the drunken Roman Vinicius tries to rape her.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The devotion of the slave Eunice (Amelia Cattaneo) to Petronius (Gustavo Serena).

A colossal epic

More than ten years after Quo vadis? (Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca, 1901), Italian director Enrico Guazzoni made a colossal epic for the Cines studio, starring Amleto Novelli and Gustavo Serena. He masterfully combined huge spectacle with intimate scenes.

In 1913, Guazzoni's Quo vadis? premiered, and the results at the box office quickly proved it a smashing success. Wikipedia: "It was arguably the first blockbuster in the history of cinema, with 5,000 extras, lavish sets, and a running time of two hours, setting the standard for 'superspectacles' for decades to come"

Throughout the world, Quo vadis? became popular not only among readers but also among fans of the new phenomenon, cinema. The film influenced Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914) and D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916).

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Quo Vadis? is nonetheless an important milestone in movie history. The film ran 12 reels (approximately three hours) at a time when most American productions were still within the 1- to 4-reel length. American film distributor George Kleine pared the film down to 8 reels for US distribution, but this still was an uncommonly long production for its day."

In 1997, the film was photochemically restored by Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, but today, a new, digital restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna will be screened. This version contains a reconstruction of the original Italian intertitles.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: Ursus (Bruto Castellani) and Chilo Chilonides (Augusto Mastripietri).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Chilo (Augusto Mastripietri) sweet-talks to Ursus (Bruto Castellani) to find out where Lygia is hidden. Caption: Chilo talks to Ursus about the traitors of the Christians. (Ursus:) Go to the Christians, go to their godhouses and ask for the brothers of Glaucus. (Chapter XVII of the book).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) finds Lygia (Lea Giunchi) at the catacombs of Ostriano. Left of Lygia is St. Peter (Giovanni Gizzi), right of her, her protector, Ursus (Bruto Castellani). Vinicius plots to abduct Lygia, with the help of the Greek Chilo (Augusto Mastripietri) and a gladiator.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The apostle Peter (Giovanni Gizzi) preaching to the Christians in the catacombs.


Italian postcard by Uff.Rev. St. Terni. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Lygia (Lea Giunchi) saves Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) from the hands of Ursus (Bruto Castellani). Ursus, protector of Lygia, has just killed a gladiator who had been charged by Vinicius to kill Ursus while he planned to abduct Lygia.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The fire of Rome.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). The Giant Ursus (Bruto Castellani) awaits the bull in the circus. After his long captivity, Ursus is almost blinded when he enters the arena. Then a wild bull enters the arena, on whose back Lygia is bound. Ursus will kill the bull with his bare hands, much to the delight of the audience and the emperor.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Ursus (Bruto Castellani) and Vinicius (Amleto Novelli) implore the audience and Emperor Nero to grace the Christian Lygia (Lea Giunchi), after Ursus has killed the bull on whose back Lygia had been bound. The audience raves because of Ursus' tour de force. Vinicius has stripped his clothes to show his scars from the wars, while Ursus holds up Lygia. All people around Nero hold their thumbs up for grace, even if this sign seems to have been a 19th-century invention and is historically incorrect.


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: Chilo (Augusto Mastripietri) is baptised by the apostle Paul (of Tarsus). Chilon! I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen! (Chapter LXI of the book).


Italian postcard. Photo: Cines. Publicity still for Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: The historical death of Petronius (Gustavo Serena) and Eunice (Amelia Cattaneo). "Friends, confess that with us perishes..." (Chapter LXXIII).


British postcard by J.F. Grimm & Co., London F.C. Photo: Cines. Amleto Novelli in Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913).


British postcard by J.F. Grimm & Co., London FC. Photo: Cines. Amleto Novelli as Vinicius visiting his uncle Petronius (Gustavo Serena) and telling him about his discovery of Lygia, at the start of Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913).


British postcard by J.F. Grimm & Co., London F.C. Photo: Cines. Scene from Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913). Caption: Watching the massacre of the Christians. Nero (Carlo Cattaneo) is instead watching Petronius (Gustavo Serena) and asking him what he thinks of the spectacle. "It is worthy of you", the latter responds.


Belgian postcard by Ed. A. Deloga, Bruxelles. Photo: Cines. On 18 July 191?/192? (exact year unknown), the Brussels cinema Majestic, 62, Boulevard du Nord (now Boulevard Adolphe Max), re-released the Italian silent epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913) because, as the postcard says, of general demand. The film took 2 hours, which was quite long for those years, and was shown integrally, with a new musical score. Quo vadis? was so popular that it had many relaunches, all through the silent era. The still depicted is a citation from Jean-Léon Gérôme's well-known painting 'The Christian Martyr's Last Prayers' (1883). It was recycled in the publicity for the film, on posters, in brochures and in advertisements in magazines.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Century of Cinema: 1906

Il Cinema Ritrovato turns 40 this year. We like the idea that the organisers called one of their three programmes 'The Time Machine'. The programme puts a spotlight on silent cinema, structured around two sections: 'A Hundred Years Ago', on which we post later this week, and 'Century of Cinema'. This section follows, year after year, a chronological path beginning with the birth of the Seventh Art in 1895 and revisits the milestones that shaped the cinema during its formative period. Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko curated this year's 'The Century of Cinema: 1906' with some 60 titles: 'New highlights in this year’s programme include dramas of unprecedented refinement by Albert Capellani and the very first productions of the Danish company Nordisk. The section explores cinema’s experimental vocation, the growing emotional involvement of spectators, and the ability of films to reflect social realities such as racism and the ambivalent representation of women, poised between misogyny and emancipation. Documentary footage of the San Francisco earthquake and the mining disaster at Courrières, France, brings terrible events of the past vividly into the present.' For this EFSP post, we did not follow the programme, but selected 25 (yes, 19 + 6) postcards of films and plays that were published in 1906.

Cinema in 1906

French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3672. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Un drame à Venise / Venetian Tragedy (Lucien Nonguet, 1906). Caption: In the Name of Honour.

In the early Pathé Frères production Un drame à Venise / Venetian Tragedy, one of the rich palaces of Venice is the setting for a drama of smouldering love and hate. In the Middle Ages, an important lord was not loved by his wife. Despite the sumptuous wealth her husband surrounds her with, the noble dame can only think about a young and handsome Romeo. The lover is surprised by the husband, who kills him, and Romeo ends up in a canal. The noble lady escapes her death when her husband is stopped by her miraculous beauty... The film is partly in colour.


Reprint of original French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3672. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Un drame à Venise / Venetian Tragedy (Lucien Nonguet, 1906). Caption: Public entertainment.

In the 16th century, an important lord was not loved by his wife. Despite the sumptuous wealth her husband surrounds her with, the noble dame can only think about a young and handsome Romeo. A beggar who earlier on had been rewarded by the lord betrays the adulterous couple. 


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3871. Photo: Gaumont phot. Publicity still for Mignon (Alice Guy, 1906). Caption: [Lothario to Mignon:] Have you suffered, have you wept? Have you languished without hope?

Alice Guy directed nine (or seven - the sources differ) scenes from the opera 'Mignon' for a synchronised sound film, in the Gaumont Chronophone Studio, Paris, in 1906. 'Mignon' (1866) is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel 'Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre'.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3871. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for Mignon (Alice Guy, 1906). Caption: Goodbye, Mignon, be brave! Don't cry!

Alice Guy (1873-1968) is generally considered to be the world's first female director. She was born in 1873 in Paris. In 1896, she entered the film business as a secretary for Léon Gaumont at Gaumont-Paris. The next year, Gaumont changed from manufacturing cameras to producing films, and Guy became one of its first directors. She averaged two two-reelers a week and impressed the company so much with the output and the quality of her productions that by 1905, she was made the company's production director, supervising the company's other directors. After her first film in 1896, she directed and produced or supervised almost six hundred silent films ranging in length from one minute to thirty minutes, the majority of which were of the single-reel length. In addition, she also directed and produced or supervised one hundred and fifty synchronised sound films for the Gaumont Chronophone. Alison McMahan at Women Film Pioneers Project: "Her Gaumont silent films are notable for their energy and risk-taking; her preference for real locations gives the extant examples of these Gaumont films a contemporary feel." In 1907, Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran the company's British and German offices. The pair went to the U.S. in 1909 to set up the company's operations there. In 1910, she and her husband set up their own production company in New York, the Solax Film Co. (1910-1914), and built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, her company's fortunes declined, and she eventually shut down the studio. Although she secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, she returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blaché. She was never able to secure any directorial jobs there and never made a film again.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3890. Photo: Gaumont phot. Publicity still for Carmen (Alice Guy, 1906). Caption: "Toreador, be on guard, and dream as you fight. May a dark eye watch you, and may love await you."

On this card for the 1906 film Carmen, directed by Alice Guy for Gaumont, Carmen flirts with the toreador before his fight with the bull: "Toréador, en garde, et songe en combattant. Qu'un œil noir te regarde et que l'amour t'attends." The film consisted of 12 so-called phonoscènes, an early sound-on-disc system. The film is presumed lost. It is unknown who the singers are. Allison MacMahan told us that this version of Carmen was among the earliest phonoscenes made. No performers were listed, only 'Opera Français'.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3890. Photo: Gaumont Phot. Scene from Carmen (Alice Guy, 1906). Caption: [The gypsy girl Carmen challenges Don José:] "Love is a Bohemian child, it has never known any law; if you do not love me, I love you, if I love you, beware."

Mark the half-visible logo Elge behind the woman on the right. It stands for L.G., the initials of Gaumont owner and founder Léon Gaumont. Croissant also released the coloured series of postcards for pre-1910 Pathé Frères movies.


French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. André Deed in Le fils du diable / The Devil's Son (Charles Lucien Lépine, 1906). The cinematography was by Segundo de Chomón.


French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Georges Vinter in Le tour du monde d'un policier / A Policeman's Trip Around The World (Charles Lépine, 1906). Special effects by Segundo de Chomón.

In Le tour du monde d'un policier (1906), a police detective has many adventures as he travels to Suez, Bombay, Yokohama, and the U.S.


French postcard by Théâtre Pathé Grolée, Lyon. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for L'espionne / The Spy (N.N., 1906), with Louis Pagliéri.

In L'espionne (1906), the daughter of a Cossack, Vera, loves a young tartar who is the enemy of her father. She betrays her father to save the life of her lover, but loses her own life instead.


French postcard by Cinema Pathé Frères. Photo: Pathé Frères. Fernand Rivers as the professor in La Peine du talion / Tit-for-Tat (Gaston Velle, 1906).

In La peine du talion (1906), a professor and two students are walking in a grove, looking for rare butterflies. They capture some, which turn suddenly into pretty girls. In revenge, the girls turn him into a butterfly. After a brief examination, the teacher is sentenced to retaliation, a gigantic plug pricked with a pin. But the students ask pardon for their teacher. The scene ends in a splendid apotheosis.


French postcard by Cinema Pathé Frères. Photo: Pathé Frères. Publicity still for Chiens contrebandiers / Dogs Used As Smugglers (Georges Hatot, 1906).

The screenplay for Les chiens contrebandiers (1906) was written by André Heuzé. In a Spanish village, not far from the border, lives Manuela. She and her companions make lace, which is smuggled by the men. Manuela has a lover who has a rival, Antonio. After his advances are rejected, Antonio swears revenge. In the following scene, the smugglers are gathered in a cave known only to them. This is where they place the lace on the dogs who have to bring it safely to the other side of the border. Meanwhile, Antonio has warned customs, and under his guidance, they pursue the dogs. However, the intelligent beasts flee, crossing hills, woods, thickets, throwing themselves to swim, barely taking time to breathe, thinking only of their precious bales. Sometimes a bale falls, but it is immediately picked up by the following dog. The smugglers were warned of the treachery by one of them. Hidden in the timber, they wait for the customs passage. Shots are exchanged, and on both sides, there are wounded. This diversion allows the dogs to get ahead. The border is near, and in a final effort, they cross the post and safely recover the goods that are entrusted to them.

Theatre in 1906

British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4222F. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in the play 'Robin Hood' (1906) by Henry Hamilton and William Devereux.

Lewis Waller (1860-1915) was best known as a matinee idol in the popular romantic plays of his day. He also worked as a playwright and a stage manager, and appeared in several films.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4359 G. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Evelyn Millard as Lady Marian in the British play 'Robin Hood', first performed in November 1906.

Evelyn Mary Millard (1869-1941) was an English Shakespearean actress, manager of actors and ‘stage beauty’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is mainly known for creating the role of Cecily Cardew for the premiere of Oscar Wilde's play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in 1895.


British postcard by J. Beagles & Co., no. 354 R. Photo: F.W. Burford. Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Nero in the stage production 'Nero' (1906).

Stephen Phillips’ play 'Nero' opened at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, in 1906. In addition to Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Nero, Constance Collier played Poppaea, while Tree's wife, Helen Maud Holt, played Agrippina, mother of Nero.


British postcard by Beagles & Co., London, no. G 407. Photo: F.W. Burford. Constance Collier as Poppaea and Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Nero in the stage production 'Nero' (1906). Constance Collier created the part of Poppaea for the stage. Stephen Phillips’ 'Nero' opened at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, in 1906.

Constance Collier (1878–1955) was an English stage and film actress and later one of Hollywood's premier drama and voice coaches. In a career that covered six decades, she evolved into one of London’s and Broadway’s finest tragediennes. Although she appeared in several silent British and American films, her career in the cinema really took off in her senior years when Collier appeared in well-regarded supporting roles in more than twenty Hollywood productions.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 3287B. Photo: Burford. Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Mark Antony and Constance Collier as Cleopatra in the Shakespeare play 'Antony and Cleopatra', first performed in 1906. Also with Hugh C. Buckler as Eros and Alice Crawford as Charmian.


British postcard by The Philco Publishing Co., London, no. 3316 E. Photo: Bassano. Constance Collier as Cleopatra in the stage production 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1906).

Just after the turn of the century (1901), Constance Collier was invited to join the theatre company of the esteemed Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who had been searching for a comparably tall leading lady to play opposite him. In 1905, Collier married handsome English actor Julian Boyle (stage name Julian L'Estrange). They performed together for many years until he died in 1918 in New York from the deadly Spanish influenza. In 1906, Beerbohm Tree's extravagant revival of 'Antony and Cleopatra' opened at His Majesty's Theatre, with Tree as Mark Antony and Constance Collier as Cleopatra, a performance for which she received much critical praise. Collier was now established as a popular and distinguished actress.


British postcard by Holland Rowbottom, Theatrical Printer, Bournemouth & London. Photo: publicity still for the stage play 'The Girl Who Lost Her Character'. Caption: Take her away.

The play 'The Girl Who Lost Her Character' by Walter Melville was produced in 1906. The Melville family were successful in their acting, writing and management of several theatres in London and the provinces. Perhaps the most spectacular success of the family was the partnership between Frederick and Walter Melville, who jointly ran the Lyceum, the Prince’s Theatre and other major theatres, mainly in London. Their melodramas, most notably the ‘Bad Women Dramas’, filled the Melville theatres after the pantomime season, continuing a long theatrical tradition well into the twentieth century.


French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3312. Photo: Henri Manuel. Sarah Bernhardt in the play 'La Vierge d'Avila' (1906) by Catulle Mendès. The postcard was mailed in 1907. Caption: VIth Tableau. That lily is a Pater [nostrum], that jasmine an Ave [Maria]...


French postcard. Photo: Henri Manuel. Sarah Bernhardt as Soeur Therese in 'La Vierge d'Avila' in a 1906 performance at Theatre Sarah-Bernhardt. 'La Vierge d'Avila' was composed by Reynaldo Hahn and written by Catulle Mendès.


French postcard in the Collection Photo-Programme, Paris. Publicity still for 'Jules César' (Julius Caesar) by William Shakespeare, performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris. First night at 4-12-1906. Caption: Translated and reworked by Louis de Gramont. 10th Tableau. The Battlefield. The voluntary death of Cassius, struck on his command by Pindarus.

In this production of 'Jules César' (Julius Caesar), Edmond Duquesne played Caesar, Maxime Desjardins Brutus, Philippe Garnier Cassius, Édouard de Max Mark Antony, Ballot Pindarus, and Madeleine Barjac Calpurnia. Scenes: Lucien Jusseaume, music: Gustave Doret.


French postcard. Mounet-Sully, Albert Lambert, Louis Delaunay, Louis Ravet and Mlle Lucie Brille in the stage play 'Polyeucte' by Pierre Corneille, staged at the Théâtre de la Nature in Cauterets on 11 or 12 August 1906.

In the stage play 'Polyeucte'(1906), Mounet-Sully played Polyeucte, Lambert Severus, and Lucie Brille Pauline. The play is based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus.


French postcard. Staging of the opera 'La Vestale' by Gaspare Spontini and libretto by Étienne de Jouy, performed at the Théâtre des Arènes in Béziers on 26 and 28 August 1906.

In the opera 'La Vestale' (1906), the lead singers were Valentin Duc (Théâtre de l'Opéra) as Licinius and Harriet Strasy (Théâtre de la Monnaie) as Julia. The set was designed by Jambon & Bailly, de l'Opéra. General director: M. D'Herbilly, conductor: Jean Nussy-Verdié, ballet director: Céline Rozier.


Danish postcard by Ed. Paul Heckscher, no. 2162. Egill Rostrup as the Norwegian King Haakon Herdebred (Haakon II) in the play 'Axel og Valborg' (1808-1810) by Adam Oehlenschläger. This postcard was mailed in 1907.

Danish actor, director and theatre historian Egill Barfod Rostrup (1876-1940) was the son of barrister and master carpenter Søren Kaspar William Rostrup and Vitta Kristiane Barfod. He was admitted to the Royal Theatre's drama school in 1896 and made his debut at the Royal Theatre in 1899. He then joined the Folketeatret (1899-1900), Casino (1900-1905) and Dagmarteatret (1905-1918). Rostrup made his film debut in 1911 and did two films with August Blom at Nordisk in 1913 and 1919. Yet, it was not until the early 1920s that he frequently appeared in a series of films with A.W. Sandberg. He made a significant contribution to theatre history research before obtaining his doctorate in 1921. He also began to work as a director, staging a long series of performances at the leading theatres and occasionally playing a role himself. His performances at the Royal Theatre around 1928-1930 were particularly noteworthy. Egill Rostrup was very interested in the ideas of the Russian Konstantin Stanislavski and in 1940 translated his work ‘An Actor's Work on Himself’ into Danish.


Danish postcard by Ed. Paul Heckscher. Martinius Nielsen in 'Axel og Valborg' by Adam Oehlenschläger, a tragedy in five acts written in Paris in 1806 and first printed in Copenhagen in 1810. In 1906, Martinius Nielsen produced and directed the play at the Dagmar Theatre in Copenhagen, with Adam Poulsen as Axel and Anna Larssen as Valborg. Nielsen himself played a Black Friar.

Danish actor and theatre director Martinius Nielsen (1859-1928) made his stage debut at Casino in 1880, where he remained until 1884. Then he followed his future wife, Oda Nielsen, to the Dagmar Theatre. He subsequently joined the Royal Theatre (1886–1889), returned to the Dagmar Theatre (1889–1894) and then joined the Folketeatret (1894–1897). From 1897 to 1909, he was the theatre director at the Dagmar Theatre, where he made it Copenhagen's leading theatre. From 1902 to 1905, he was also director of the Casino Theatre. Martinius made his film debut in 1910 with Nordisk Films Kompagni in Kean (Holger Rasmussen, 1910) and subsequently appeared as an actor in only one other film, Den hemmelige Traktat / The Secret Treaty (Alfred Lind, 1913). In 1914, he made his debut as a film director with the production company Dania Bio Film. Between 1914 and 1923, and with a peak in 1916-1918, he directed 17 films, mostly for Nordisk, and often with Valdemar Psilander in the lead.

Sources: Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (French), Roberta and Simone Blaché (The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché), Alison McMahan (Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema), Alison McMahan (Women Film Pioneers Project), Kinomata: la donna nel cinema, Les Archives du spectacle (French), Danskefilm, Wikipedia (Danish) and IMDb.

For the complete film La Peine du talion in full colour, see Vimeo. And check out last year's post, Back to 1905.