Anna Neagle

Endearing Anna Neagle (1904-1986) was a leading star in British films for over 25 years from 1932 till the late 1950s. She provided glamour and sophistication to war-torn London audiences with her lightweight musicals, comedies and historical dramas. Almost all of her films were produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943.

British postcard by Real Photograph in the Picturegoer Series, no. 867a. Photo: Cannons.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 66. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Anna Neagle in No, No, Nanette (Herbert Wilcox, 1940).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 414. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Josephine Fitzgerald in Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).

Overnight favourite

Anna Neagle was born Florence Marjorie Robertson in Forest Gate, near London, in 1904. She was the daughter of Herbert Robertson, a merchant navy captain, and his wife, the former Florence Neagle. Her brother was actor Stuart Robinson.

She made her stage debut as a dancer in 1917. In 1925, she appeared in the chorus of André Charlot's revue 'Bubbly', and later also in C.B. Cochran's revues, where she understudied Jessie Matthews.

Actor Jack Buchanan encouraged her to take on a featured role in the musical 'Stand Up and Sing' (1931), and she began using the professional name of Anna Neagle, the surname being her mother's maiden name. The play was a huge success with a total run of 604 performances. Her big break came when film producer-director Herbert Wilcox caught the show purposely to consider Buchanan for his upcoming film. He was taken (and smitten) with Anna.

Photographing extremely well, Neagle was a natural for the screen, and she played her first starring film role opposite Jack Buchanan in the musical Goodnight Vienna (Herbert Wilcox, 1932). Neagle became an overnight favourite. Although the film cost a mere £23,000, it was a huge hit at the box office, with profits from its Australian release alone being £150,000.

After her starring role in The Flag Lieutenant (Henry Edwards, 1932), she worked exclusively under Wilcox's direction for all but one of her subsequent films, becoming one of Britain's biggest stars. She continued in the musical genre, co-starring with Fernand Gravey (aka Fernand Gravet) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933), the first film version of Noel Coward's tale of ill-fated lovers.


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Fernand Gravey (centre) and Anna Neagle (right) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933).

Italian postcard by FilmImpero, SA IRDAG. Photo: United Artists. Anna Neagle in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933), released in Italy as Ottocento Romantico (The Romantic 19th Century).


British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Anna Neagle (centre) and Fernand Gravey (right) in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933).

Critical accolades

Anna Neagle had her first major film success in the title role of Nell Gwynn (Herbert Wilcox, 1934), as the woman who became the mistress of Charles II (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). In the United States, the Hays Office had Wilcox add a (historically false) scene featuring the two leads getting married and also a 'framing story' resulting in an entirely different ending.

Author Graham Greene said of Nell Gwynn: "I have seen few things more attractive than Miss Neagle in breeches." Two years later, she followed up with another real-life figure, Irish actress Peg Woffington in Peg of Old Drury (Herbert Wilcox, 1936).

Neagle and Wilcox then made the backstage musical Limelight (Herbert Wilcox, 1936) and a circus trapeze fable, The Three Maxims (Herbert Wilcox, 1937).

The latter film had Neagle performing her own high-wire acrobatics. The script was co-written by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who later co-wrote Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941),

Although now highly successful in films, Neagle continued to act on stage too. In 1934, she performed as Rosalind in 'As You Like It' and as Olivia in 'Twelfth Night', directed by Robert Atkins. She earned critical accolades in both productions, despite the fact that she had never before done any Shakespeare.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 672. Photo: Cannons.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. 867. Photo: Cannons.

Queen Victoria

In 1937, Anna Neagle gave her most prestigious performance so far – as Queen Victoria in the successful historical drama Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937), co-starring Anton Walbrook as Prince Albert.

Victoria the Great was such an international success that it resulted in Neagle and Walbrook essaying their roles again in an all-Technicolour sequel entitled Sixty Glorious Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1938), co-starring C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke of Wellington.

While the first of these films was in release, Neagle returned to the London stage in the title role in 'Peter Pan'.bThe two Queen Victoria biographies were successful enough to get Wilcox and Neagle a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, and they moved to Hollywood at the end of the 1930s.

Their first American film was Nurse Edith Cavell (Herbert Wilcox, 1939). She essayed the role of the true-life nurse who was shot by the Germans in World War I for alleged spying. The film had a significant impact on audiences on the eve of war.

In a turnabout from this serious drama, they followed with three musical comedies, all based on once-popular stage plays. The first was Irene (Herbert Wilcox, 1940), co-starring Ray Milland. It included a Technicolour sequence, which featured Neagle singing the play's most famous song, 'Alice Blue Gown'.


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 101. Photo: British and Dominions Films.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 188. Photo: British and Dominions.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H, A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Signed in 1948.

Entertaining the troops

Anna Neagle followed this film with No, No, Nanette (Herbert Wilcox, 1940) with Victor Mature, and Sunny (Herbert Wilcox, 1941) with Ray Bolger.

During the war, Anna entertained the troops. Her final American film was Forever and a Day (Herbert Wilcox, 1943), a tale of a London family house from 1804 to the 1940 Blitz.

This film boasts 80 performers (mostly British), including Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains, Charles Laughton, and – among the few Americans – Buster Keaton.

Wilcox directed the sequence featuring Neagle, Milland, Smith, and Rains, while other directors who worked on the film included René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville and Robert Stevenson.

During the war, the profits and salaries were given to war relief. After the war, prints were slated to be destroyed so that no one could profit from them. However, this never occurred.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 415. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Nigel Patrick in the romantic comedy Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 417. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Michael Wilding and Anna Neagle in the romantic comedy Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 418. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948) with Tom Walls and Michael Wilding.

Undercover agent

Returning to England, Anna Neagle and Herbert Wilcox commenced with They Flew Alone (Herbert Wilcox, 1942). Neagle added another real-life British heroine to her gallery, this time as aviatrix Amy Johnson. The film, released a year after the aviatrix’s death, was noted for intercutting the action with newsreel footage.

They returned to filmmaking with the wartime espionage thriller The Yellow Canary (Herbert Wilcox, 1943), co-starring Richard Greene and Margaret Rutherford. Neagle played a German sympathiser (or that is what she seems to be at first) who is forced to go to Canada for her own safety. In reality, she's working as an undercover agent.

After making this film, Neagle and Wilcox made their professional relationship a personal one as well when they married in 1943.

In 1945, Neagle appeared on stage in 'Emma', a dramatisation of Jane Austen's novel. That same year, she was seen in the film I Live in Grosvenor Square (Herbert Wilcox, 1945), co-starring Rex Harrison.

For seven straight years after WWII, Anna Neagle was voted the top favourite English actress.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 711. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 713. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949) with Michael Wilding.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 714. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949) with Michael Wilding.

The greatest team in British films

Anna Neagle wanted Rex Harrison again for the lead in her next film, Piccadilly Incident (Herbert Wilcox, 1946). He proved to be unavailable, so Wilcox cast Michael Wilding in the lead. Thus was born what film critic Godfrey Winn called "the greatest team in British films". The story – of a wife, presumed dead, returning to her (remarried) husband – bears a resemblance to the Irene Dunne-Cary Grant comedy My Favorite Wife (Garson Kanin, 1940). Piccadilly Incident was chosen as Picturegoer’s Best Film of 1947.

Neagle and Wilding were reunited in The Courtneys of Curzon Street (Herbert Wilcox, 1947), a period drama that became the year's top box-office attraction. The film featured Wilding as an upper-class dandy and Neagle as the maid he marries, only to have the two of them driven apart by Victorian society.

The third pairing of Neagle and Wilding in the London films, as the series of films came to be called, was in Spring in Park Lane (1948), which depicted the romance between a millionaire’s niece and a valet. Spring in Park Lane was the 1949 Picturegoer winner for Best Film, Actor and Actress.

Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding were together for a fourth time in the Technicolour romance Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949). The plot is reminiscent of Roberta, as it had Wilding inheriting a dress shop owned by Neagle.

David Absalom comments on BritishPictures.com: “These films rarely pleased the critics. This is particularly true of the 'London Series' of frothy nonsense, usually co-starring Michael Wilding and usually musicals. The critics wanted neo-realist pictures depicting grim reality - the audience, who were suffering through the Austerity Years and knew all about grim reality, wanted fun and escapism. Anna Neagle pictures provided that in spades.”


British postcard, no. 257.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London in the Picturegoer series, no. W 700. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Prods.

Florence Nightingale

By 1950, Anna Neagle was at her zenith as Britain’s top box-office actress, and in that year she made what reputedly became her own favourite film, Odette, co-starring Trevor Howard, Peter Ustinov, and Marius Goring. As Odette Sansom, she was the Anglo-French resistance fighter who was pushed to the edge of betrayal by the Nazis.

Going from this real-life British heroine, she went straight on to playing Florence Nightingale in The Lady with the Lamp (Herbert Wilcox, 1951). Returning to the stage in 1953, she scored a major success with 'The Glorious Days', which had a run of 476 performances.

Neagle and Wilcox brought the play to the screen under the title Lilacs in the Spring (Herbert Wilcox, 1954), co-starring Errol Flynn. In the film, she plays an actress knocked out by a bomb, who dreams she is Queen Victoria and Nell Gwyn – as well as her own mother. As she begins dreaming, the film switches from black and white to colour.

Neagle and Flynn reteamed for a second film together, King's Rhapsody (Herbert Wilcox, 1955), based on an Ivor Novello musical. Although Neagle performed several musical numbers for the film, most of them were cut from the final release, leaving her with essentially a supporting role.

Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope with location work near Barcelona, Spain, King's Rhapsody was a major flop everywhere. Neagle's (and Flynn's) box-office appeal, it seemed, was beginning to fade. Neagle's last box-office hit was My Teenage Daughter (Herbert Wilcox, 1956), which featured her as a mother trying to prevent her daughter (Sylvia Syms) from lapsing into juvenile delinquency.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. 148.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Productions.

Bankrupt

Anna Neagle and Syms worked together again on No Time For Tears (Cyril Frankel, 1957), also starring Anthony Quayle and Flora Robson. As directed by Cyril Frankel, this was the first film for over 20 years where Neagle was directed by someone other than Herbert Wilcox.

She produced a series of films directed by her husband, including These Dangerous Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1957), Wonderful Things! (Herbert Wilcox, 1958), and The Heart of a Man (Herbert Wilcox, 1959).

The films all starred pop idol Frankie Vaughan, but they were out of touch with changing tastes and lost money, resulting in Wilcox going heavily into debt. Neagle herself made her final film appearance in The Lady is a Square (Herbert Wilcox, 1959) opposite Frankie Vaughan.

Herbert Wilcox was bankrupt by 1964, but his wife soon revived his fortunes.

Anna Neagle returned to the stage the following year and made a spectacular comeback in the West End musical 'Charlie Girl'. In it, she played the role of a former ´Cochran Young Lady´ who marries a peer of the realm.


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 101A. Photo: British & Dominions Films.


British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C330. Photo: Cannons.

Dame of the British Empire

'Charlie Girl' was a phenomenal success that ran for a staggering six years and 2,047 performances. During the show's six-year run, Anna Neagle was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1970 in recognition of her work.

Two years after 'Charlie Girl', she appeared in a revival of 'No, No, Nanette', which she had done onscreen three decades earlier.

In 1975, she replaced Celia Johnson in 'The Dame of Sark', and in 1978 (the year after her husband's death), she was acting in 'Most Gracious Lady', which was written for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Although plagued by Parkinson's disease in her later years, Neagle continued to be active well into her eighties. On TV, she was last seen in an episode of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected (1983). In 1985, she appeared as the Fairy Godmother in a production of 'Cinderella' at the London Palladium.

Anna Neagle was still working in 1986, just a few weeks before her death in West Byfleet, England, from complications of renal disease and cancer. She was 81.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 716. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1949).


Movie Legends - Anna Neagle. Source: Movie Legends (YouTube).

Sources: Roger Phillip Mellor (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), David Absalom (BritishPictures.com), Bruce Eder (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Directed by G.W. Pabst

Austrian film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885-1967) was, together with Fritz Lang, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch, one of the great film directors of the Weimar Republic of Germany. He worked in Germany, France, Italy and the US. Some of his best-known films deal with the situation of women in the Weimar Republic. His best-known films include Die freudlose Gasse (1925), Die Büchse der Pandora (1929), Die Dreigroschenoper (1931) and Kameradschaft (1931). During World War II, he made the films Komödianten (1941) and Paracelsus (1943) in Nazi Germany.


G.W. Pabst. German cigarette card for Hänsom cigarettes by Jasmatzi Cigarettenfabrik G.M.b.H, Dresden/Ross Verlag, Film Series 4 'Aus tönenden Filmen' (From sound films), no. 510. Photo: Nero Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Sofar-Film-Produktion. Werner Krauss in Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1925).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935), no. 165. Photo: Ufa. Werner Krauss in Geheimnisse einer Seele / Secrets of a Soul (G.W. Pabst, 1926).


French postcard by Schirmer / Mosel in the series Les Douze de Schirmer, no. 2, Photos de films 1/12, 1990. From the book 'Louise Brooks: Lulu in Berlin'. Louise Brooks and Franz Lederer in Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 187/2. Photo: Vandor-Nelson Film. Feodor Chaliapin as Don Quichotte and Dorville as Sancho Panza in Don Quichotte / Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933).

An extremely productive period

Georg Wilhelm Pabst or G.W. Pabst was born in the Bohemian town of Raudnitz, Austria-Hungary, today's Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic, in 1885. He was the son of a railway clerk. While growing up in Vienna, he studied drama at the Academy of Decorative Arts and initially began his career as a stage actor in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

In 1910, Pabst travelled to the United States, where he worked as an actor and director at the German Theatre in New York City. In 1914, he decided to become a director, and he returned to recruit actors in Europe. Pabst was in France when World War I began. He was arrested and held as an enemy alien and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp near Brest. While imprisoned, Pabst organised a theatre group at the camp and directed French-language plays.

Upon his release in 1919, he returned to Vienna, where he became director of the Neue Wiener Bühne, an avant-garde theatre. Pabst began his career as a film director at the behest of Carl Froelich, who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film, the silent melodrama Der Schatz / The Treasure, in 1923. He directed Henny Porten in the drama Gräfin Donelli / Countess Donelli (1924).

His first major success was the silent drama Die freudlose Gasse / Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen. This socially critical, often censored film marked the beginning of an extremely productive period with numerous artistically valuable and commercially successful films, including such silent films as Geheimnisse einer Seele / Secrets of a Soul (1926) with Werner Krauss and Ruth Weyher, and Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with Edith Jéhanne and Brigitte Helm.

In Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (1928), based on Frank Wedekind's 'Pandora's Box' and 'Earth Spirit', and Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / Diary of a Lost Woman (1929), the lead role was played by American actress Louise Brooks. Together with Arnold Fanck, Pabst also directed the mountain film Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) starring Leni Riefenstahl and Gustav Diessl.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 695/3. Photo: Maxim Film. Henny Porten and Eberhard Leithoff in Gräfin Donelli / Countess Donelli (G.W. Pabst, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1020/1. Photo: Curt Oertel, Berlin. Asta Nielsen in Die freudlose Gasse / Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925). In 1929, Dutch painter Pyke Koch painted Nielsen's portrait, using one of Oertel's photos. The painting is now at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht. See www.bookspot.nl/images/active/InkijkPDF/cb/9789462582385.pdf. NB Curt Oertel was one of the cinematographers of the film as well.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1940/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Uno Henning in Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Love of Jeanne Ney (G.W. Pabst, 1927).


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 534. Brigitte Helm in Abwege / The Devious Path (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1928), presented in France as Crise.


British postcard by Pyramid, no. PC 8238. Louise Brooks in Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929).

The red Pabst

With the entry of the sound film, Georg Wilhelm Pabst made a trilogy of films that secured his reputation. He achieved international success with the war film Westfront 1918 (1930). Like Lewis Milestone's film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the uncompromising anti-war tone of the film led to heated discussions in Germany. His next successes were Die 3-Groschenoper / The Threepenny Opera (1931), based on the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical, and the drama Kameradschaft / Comradeship (1931), a French-German co-production concerning a mine disaster where German miners rescue French miners from an underground fire and explosion.

With these films, Pabst placed his work firmly on the left-wing political spectrum and earned the nickname ‘the red Pabst’. Pabst also filmed three versions of Pierre Benoit's novel 'L'Atlantide' in 1932, in German, English, and French, titled Die Herrin von Atlantis, The Mistress of Atlantis, and L'Atlantide, respectively.

In 1933, Pabst directed Don Quixote, once again in German, English, and French versions. At the time the National Socialists seized power, Pabst was filming in France. He decided to stay in France, where he made another film. In the same year, his next stop was Hollywood, where he had little success with A Modern Hero (1934) starring Richard Barthelmess. Then he returned to France to make the Spy film Mademoiselle Docteur / Street of Shadows (1937) starring Pierre Blanchar and Dita Parlo.

When he was visiting his family in Austria in 1939, he was surprised by the start of the Second World War. As he was no longer able to leave the German Reich, he now made films for Bavaria Film under the auspices of the Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels. The film biographies Komödianten / The Comedians (1941) and Paracelsus (1943) romanticised historical figures from German history and are typical of the era with their subtle propaganda tendencies.

Leni Riefenstahl asked Pabst to help direct the film Tiefland, as she felt she was Pabst's pupil. However, the collaboration soon ended in a dispute because Riefenstahl had completely different ideas about directing actors. Unfinished remained the drama Der Fall Molander / The Molander Case (1945), based on the novel 'Die Sternegeige' by Alfred Karrasch. On August 28, 1944, Pabst started shooting the film for Terra Film. As shooting was just completed at the Barrandov Studios in Prague and editing had already begun, Prague was liberated by the Red Army, and Pabst was forced to abandon the work. The remaining film is kept at the Národní Filmový Archiv in Prague.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4485/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Hans Casparius, Berlin. Gustav Diessl in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Arnold Fanck, G.W. Pabst, 1929).


German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl five lives' (2000). Photo: Ufa. Leni Riefenstahl as Maria Majoni and Ernst Petersen as Hans Brandt in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 122/2. Photo: Schmoll / Nero-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Skandal um Eva / Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930).


German cigarette card for Hänsom cigarettes by Jasmatzi Cigarettenfabrik G.M.b.H, Dresden/Ross Verlag, Film Series 4 'Aus tönenden Filmen' (From sound films), no. 663. Photo: Nero-Film. H.J. Möbis and Gustav Diessl in Westfront 1918 (G.W. Pabst, 1930).


German cigarette card for Hänsom cigarettes by Jasmatzi Cigarettenfabrik G.M.b.H, Dresden/Ross Verlag, Film Series 4 'Aus tönenden Filmen' (From sound films), no. 533. Photo: National. Rudolf Forster in Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera (G.W. Pabst, 1931).

An increasingly damaged reputation

After the war, Georg Wilhelm Pabst was unable to continue the success of the films of the Weimar Republic. He made films in Austria, Italy and Germany. For his film Der Prozeß / The Trial (1948) starring Ewald Balser and Ernst Deutsch, he was awarded the director's prize at the Venice Film Festival. The film deals with the Tiszaeszlár affair.

In 1949, the City of Vienna promised to fund four films by Pabst. The first film, Geheimnisvolle Tiefe / Mysterious Depths (1949), with a screenplay written by his wife Gertrude, was such a failure that it ended the whole project. Pabst directed four opera productions in Italy in 1953: 'La forza del destino' for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, and a few weeks later, for the Arena di Verona Festival, a spectacular 'Aïda', with Maria Callas in the title role, 'Il trovatore' and again 'La forza del destino'.

His films Der letzte Akt / The Last Ten Days (1955) and Es geschah am 20. Juli / It Happened on 20 July (1955) dealt with anti-Semitism and the ‘Third Reich’. Der letzte Akt was the first film in post-World War II Germany to feature the character of Adolf Hitler, played by Albin Skoda. Both films were considered quite remarkable attempts to deal with the shadows of the past. Pabst's career and reputation were increasingly damaged by commissioned work such as his last two films, Rosen für Bettina / Ballerina (1956) with Elisabeth Müller and Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen / Through the Woods, Through the Meadows (1956) with Eva Bartok.

Pabst's illness with Parkinson's disease in 1957 finally made it impossible for him to continue his film work. Georg Wilhelm Pabst died in Vienna in 1967 at 81. He is buried in a grave of honour in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery). In 1968, Georg-Wilhelm-Pabst-Gasse in Vienna-Favoriten was named after him. In 2024, the forecourt of the old cinema in Leibnitz was also named after Pabst, as he lived in the private Fünfturm castle in Tillmitsch near Leibnitz for several years.

Georg Wilhelm Pabst was married to Gertrude (Trude) Hennings (born 1899) from 1924. Their son Peter (born 1924) was his father's assistant after the Second World War and later an editor at Bavarian television. In 1964/1965, their second son, Michael (born 1941), conducted interviews to prepare a biography, which remained unfinished. G. W. Pabst is the fictional protagonist of Daniel Kehlmann's acclaimed novel 'Lichtspiel', published in autumn 2023.


Dutch postcard by Filma, no. 443. Photo: Brigitte Helm in L'Atlantide (G.W. Pabst, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8055/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Vandor-Nelson Film. Arlette Marchal in Don Quichotte (G.W. Pabst, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3104/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Bavaria-Filmkunst. Ludwig Schmitz in Komödianten / The Comedians (G.W. Pabst, 1941).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3021. Photo: Michaelis / Carlton Film / NF. Ivan Desny in Rosen für Bettina / Ballerina (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1956).


West German poster postcard by deutsches filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main. German poster by Josef Bottlik for Nero-Film / Süd-Film. Louise Brooks in Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (G.W. Pabst, 1929).

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

Happy Easter with the stars!

Dear friends, we wish you all: Happy Easter! Frohe Ostern! Joyeuses Pâques ! ¡Feliz Pascua! ¡Feliz Páscoa! Glad påsk! Счастливой Пасхи! ハッピーイースターVrolijk Pasen! Easter Sunday is a festive, family-oriented day in the Netherlands. People prepare festive breakfasts, brunches or lunches. They may also search for and eat chocolate eggs that are supposedly delivered by the Easter hare. Enjoy it.

British postcard by Rotary Photo in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 956 A.

English singer and actress Phyllis Dare (1890-1975) was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other forms of musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century. She appeared occasionally in films and was one of the leading Picture Postcard beauties of the Belle Epoque.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4884/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

British-born, German actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968) was Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s. With Willy Fritsch, she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. Their best film was the immensely popular film operetta Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4885/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4885/3, 1929/1930. Photo: Ufa.

Willy Fritsch (1901-1973) was the immensely popular ‘Sunny Boy’ of the Ufa operettas of the 1930s and 1940s.


Belgian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

Legendary actress and singer Doris Day (1922-2019) performed with several big bands before going solo in 1947. In the 1950s, she made a series of popular film musicals, including Calamity Jane (1953) and The Pajama Game (1957). With Rock Hudson, she starred in the box office hit Pillow Talk (1959), and on TV, she appeared in the sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968-1973). Que Será, Será!


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-64. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Central Europa Film.

Johanna von Koczian (1933-2024) was in the late 1950s and early 1960s one of Germany’s most popular film stars. Later, she evolved into a stage actress, a popular Schlager singer, a TV presenter, and a successful author of novels and children's books.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 480. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Ann Miller (1923-2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress. She was famed for her speed in tap dancing and her style of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasised her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Miller is best remembered for her work in the classic Hollywood musicals Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).


Dutch postcard by Takken, no. A.X. 351.

American actress and dancer Virginia Mayo (1920-2005) is best known for her series of film comedies with Danny Kaye, including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Norman Z. McLeod, 1947). She personified the quintessential voluptuous Hollywood beauty, like a pin-up painting coming to life.


West German collector card, no. 53.

American actress and writer Yvette Mimieux (1942-2022) was known for The Time Machine (1960) and several other popular films of the 1960s. She was nominated for three Golden Globe awards during her acting career.