William Powell

William Powell (1892-1984) was an American actor whose career began in silent films. He is best known for the Thin Man film series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett, in which he starred opposite Myrna Loy. Powell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor a total of three times, for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947).


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes and other Godfrey Philips Associated brands, no. 2. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


Vintage card. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


British postcard by Art Photo, no. 102. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Myrna Loy and William Powell in After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936).


French postcard by Viny, no. 6. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


French postcard, no. 703. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


Italian postcard. Artwork: Giacomo Canestrari / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. William Powell and Myrna Loy in Double Wedding (1937).


Belgian collector card by Kwatta. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. William Powell in The Thin Man Goes Home (Richard Thorpe, 1944).

Thieves, blackmailers and bad husbands

William Horatio Powell was born in Pittsburgh in 1892. He was the only child of Nettie Manila (née Brady) and Horatio Warren Powell, who worked as an accountant. In 1907, young William moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School four years later. The family lived there, only a few blocks away from the Carpenters, whose daughter Harlean later also went to Hollywood under the name Jean Harlow, although she and William did not meet until they were both established film actors.

William always wanted to act. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Kansas, where he intended to study law, but after only a week there, he decided to leave the school and went to New York. He was 18 when he started studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) and graduated in 1912. He worked in some Vaudeville and stock companies and then went to Broadway, where he appeared in successful plays.

In 1922, he began a career in Hollywood with a small role as an evil henchman of Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (Albert Parker, 1922) with John Barrymore. He later performed as Francis I alongside Marion Davies as Mary Tudor in When Knighthood Was in Flower (Robert G. Vignola, 1922). The historic drama produced by William Randolph Hearst (through his Cosmopolitan Productions) was considered the most expensive film ever produced at the time. In 1924, William Powell signed a studio contract with Paramount Pictures and went on to star in numerous productions, including the now-lost 1926 premiere of The Great Gatsby (Herbert Brenon, 1926), starring Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson. In the silent era, he primarily played sinister characters such as thieves, blackmailers, and bad husbands. He finally attracted attention as Leo, the arrogant film director in Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928), alongside Emil Jannings.

The big success for Powell came with the advent of the talkies in the late 1920s, which also showcased his pleasant voice. In the crime mystery The Canary Murder Case (Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle, 1929), he portrayed Philo Vance, the amateur private detective best known from the novels of S.S. Van Dine, who investigates the death of "the Canary" (Louise Brooks). Powell filmed two sequels with Paramount, The Greene Murder Case (Frank Tuttle, 1929) and The Benson Murder Case (Frank Tuttle, 1930); as well as The Kennel Murder Case (Michael Curtiz, 1933) at rival studio Warner Bros.

It established him in more positive roles. Together with Kay Francis, Powell formed an on-screen pair in six films from 1930 to 1932. One of their most successful films together was the tender shipboard romance One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932). In 1931, he married actress Carole Lombard, whom he divorced again in 1933. However, they remained on good terms.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3381/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. William Powell in the comedy She's a Sheik (Clarence Badger, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3957/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount. Powell was often to be seen in a white tie on film. An option from 1929 could be the film Pointed Heels (Edward Sutherland, 1929), also with Fay Wray and Phillips Holmes. All through the 1920s, Powell worked for Paramount, moving over to Warner in 1931.


British postcard by Milton, no. 57.B. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


British Real Photograph postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Sheila Terry and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Margaret Lindsay and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Margaret Lindsay and William Powell in Private Detective 62 (Michael Curtiz, 1933).


French postcard by Éditions et Publications cinématographiques (EPC), no. 113. Photo: MGM.

A wealthy amateur detective

In 1934, William Powell went to MGM, where he was teamed with Myrna Loy in Manhattan Melodrama (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934) alongside Clark Gable. Their next film together became a classic, the crime comedy The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934), based upon Dashiell Hammett's novel. Powell and Loy co-starred as the wealthy amateur detective duo Nick and Nora Charles, who enjoy copious drinking and flirtatious banter. Their wire-haired fox terrier, Asta, was played by canine actor Skippy. Between 1934 and 1947, Powell and Loy appeared in 14 films together.

While Philo Vance had made Powell a star, Nick Charles made him famous. Powell received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934). The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell, with his resonant speaking voice, to showcase his sophisticated charm and witty sense of humour. The film was such a box-office success that it spawned five sequels: After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936), Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939), Shadow of the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (Richard Thorpe, 1945) and Song of the Thin Man (Edward Buzzell, 1947).

In 1935, William Powell starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless (Victor Fleming, 1935), loosely based on the scandal of the 1931 marriage between torch singer Libby Holman and tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds, and his death by a gunshot wound to the head. A serious romance developed between the two stars. In 1936, they were reunited on screen in the screwball comedy Libelled Lady (Jack Conway, 1936), also with Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. Harlow and Powell got engaged, but Harlow became ill soon after and died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937, before they could marry. Powell starred in the Best Picture winner for 1936, The Great Ziegfeld (Robert Z. Leonard, 1936). Powell played the title role, and Myrna Loy appeared as Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke. He received his second Academy Award nomination for the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936) with his ex-wife, Carole Lombard. In March 1938, Powell was diagnosed with rectal cancer. His distress over Jean Harlow's death, as well as the cancer diagnosis, caused him to accept fewer acting roles.

Powell's career slowed considerably in the 1940s till his third Oscar nomination for his work in Life with Father (Michael Curtiz, 1947) with Irene Dunne and Elizabeth Taylor. He had a supporting part in the romantic comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953), starring Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall as three fashionable Manhattan models. His last role was in Mister Roberts (John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, 1955). He played "Doc" alongside Henry Fonda in the title role, James Cagney as the ship's perfectionist captain, and Jack Lemmon in his Oscar-winning performance as Ensign Pulver.

William Powell died of natural causes in Palm Springs in 1984 at the age of 91. He was married three times. His wives were Eileen Wilson (1915-1930), Carole Lombard (1931-1933) and Diana Lewis (1940-1984, his death). With Wilson, he had a son, television writer and producer William David Powell, born in 1925. After a period of ill health and depression, his son stabbed himself to death while taking a shower in 1968. He left a four-page goodbye letter to his father, with whom he was still very close. The last two sentences were revealed to the public: "Things aren't so good here. I'm going where it's better." Powell was buried at Cathedral City's Desert Memorial Park in Riverside County, California, where his father and his father's last wife, Diana Lewis, are also buried.


French postcard by E.C., Rueil-Malmaison, no. 556. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 392a. Photo: MGM.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 161. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. William Powell and Myrna Loy in Evelyn Prentice (William K. Howard, 1934).


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3782. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Myrna Loy and William Powell. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British hand-coloured postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 300. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). William Powell and Myrna Loy in Another Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1939).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 258, 1946. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard, no. AX-123. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

La Collectionneuse: June Allyson

With her twinkling smile and her wholesome and unassuming screen image, June Allyson gained wide popularity as the perfect girl-next-door in the 1940s. Later, she would become the perfect screen wife, eager, loyal and understanding, notably in three films with James Stewart. Audiences found their pairing especially endearing and believable. In 1986, she said: "I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don’t sing like Judy Garland. I don’t dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom".


French postcard by Editions E.P.I., Paris, no. 2 10 D. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. a.x. 254. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A serious accident

June Allyson was born on the 7th of October 1917 in New York City, U.S.A.

Her parents were Robert Geisman and Clara Provost.

Later, she would claim that her name was 'Van Geisman' and that she was of Dutch origin. However, records show that her paternal grandparents, Harry Geisman (without a 'Van') and Anna Hafner, were immigrants from Germany.

When she was a child, June Allyson was a victim of a serious accident. Doctors feared that she would be crippled for life.

She had to wear a brace to support her spine for some time.  She started doing exercises to be able to walk again and to build her muscles. A determined child, she finally recovered.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, no. W251. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 951. June Allyson and Peter Lawford in Good News (Charles Walters, 1947).

Becoming a dancer

An avid fan of the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, June Allyson dreamed of becoming a professional dancer.

June soon started entering dance contests.

She embarked on a career in show business in the second half of the 1930s.

From 1937 to 1940, she appeared in 10 musical shorts at Educational and Vitaphone, including Up and Downs (1937), Dime a Dance (1938), Sing for Sweetie (1938), The Prisoner of Swing (1938), Rollin’in Rhythm (1939) and All Girl Revue (1940).

She also had her first professional stage engagement in 1937 at the Lido Club in Montreal.


Dutch postcard by Van Leer’s Fotodruk Industrie N.V., Amsterdam, no. 351.


American postcard by Movie Candid Color Card, Beverly Hills, California. Photo: MGM.

Broadway

June Allyson worked for the first time on Broadway as a chorus girl in the musical 'Sing Out the News' (1938-1939).

She then was in the cast of 'Very Warm for May' (1939-1940), which, despite a score by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and staging by Vincente Minnelli, lasted only 59 performances.

Next came another chorus girl’s job in Rodgers and Hart’s 'Higher and Higher' (1940), which marked the Broadway debut of famous Hungarian-born soprano Marta Eggerth. However, it turned out that the biggest hit of the show was a trained sea lion named 'Sharkey'.

She was a dancing girl and an understudy to Betty Hutton in 'Panama Hattie', which premiered on the 30th of October 1940. When Hutton came down with measles, June had the opportunity to replace her for a few days.

Producer George Abbott noticed her and took a liking to her. He gave her a good supporting part in his Broadway show 'Best Foot Forward' (1941-1942). M.G.M. bought the film rights, and June Allyson was hired to appear in the screen adaptation.


Dutch postcard by Uitgave P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-36.


Dutch postcard by Uitgave J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 1250.

A team with Van Johnson

In 1943, she had three musical numbers in Best Foot Forward and sang George and Ira Gershwin’s 'Treat Me Rough' in Girl Crazy.

That same year, she also sang 'In a Little Spanish Town' with Gloria DeHaven and Virginia O’Brien in the star-studded musical Thousand Cheers (1943).

She then had a supporting part in Meet the People (1944).

Producer Joe Pasternak thought that June was ready for bigger things, and M.G.M. teamed her with Van Johnson in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), which made her a star.

Having noticed the great screen chemistry between June and Van Johnson, M.G.M. would later reunite them in High Barbaree (1947), The Bride Goes Wild (1948), Too Young to Kiss (1951), which won her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and Remains to Be Seen (1953).


French or Belgian postcard, no. 551. June Allyson, Arlene Dahl and Van Johnson in The Bride Goes Wild (Norman Taurog, 1948).


Spanish postcard, no. 4384. June Allyson and Gene Kelly in The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948).

M.G.M. star

June Alyson was Margaret O’Brien’s sister in Music for Millions (1944) and co-starred with Robert Walker in Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945) and The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945). After Two Sisters from Boston (1946) with Kathryn Grayson, she had her first straight dramatic part, as Claudette Colbert’s depressed and neurotic stepdaughter, in The Secret Heart (1946).

June guest-starred in two lavish biopics based on the life and music of famous composers. Till the Clouds Roll by (1946) was about Jerome Kern, and Words and Music (1948) depicted the rise to fame of the duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

At 29, she still looked youthful enough to play a college girl in the lively and cheerful musical Good News (1947).

She played Constance in The Three Musketeers (1948) and Jo March in Little Women (1949), which were both top-grossers.

In 1949, she co-starred with James Stewart, with whom she got along very well, in The Stratton Story, as his devoted wife. It was one of the most popular films of the year.


Spanish postcard, no. 1123. June Allyson and Walter Pidgeon.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 1151. June Allyson, Marie McDonald and Peter Lawford.

Growing dissatisfied with her roles

Two films with her husband, Dick Powell, followed: The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and Right Cross (1950).

June Allyson had two straight parts in a row as a turn-of-the-century doctor in The Girl in White (1952) and as an army nurse in Battle Circus (1953), opposite Humphrey Bogart.

After ten years working exclusively for M.G.M., June began growing dissatisfied with the roles she was being offered. She reckoned that working for other studios would give her career a welcome boost.

In May 1953, it was announced that her M.G.M. contract had been dissolved through mutual agreement.

She owed them one more film, which would be Executive Suite (1954), as William Holden’s wife. It received the Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting at the Venice Film Festival.


Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. A.X. 303. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. June Allyson and Dick Powell. The stationery paper Dick Powell is writing on is Waldorf Astoria’s.


Dutch postcard by Foto Archief Film en Toneel, no. a.x. 352. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. June Allyson and James Stewart in The Stratton Story (Sam Wood, 1949).

Enduring popularity

June Allyson was again James Stewart’s understanding and supporting wife in Universal’s The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and Paramount’s Strategic Air Command (1955), which were massive hits.

In 20th Century Fox’s Woman’s World (1954), she was Cornel Wilde’s unsophisticated and gauche wife, involved in a three-men competition for a general manager job. The film cleverly contrasted her guileless character with that of her two glamorous co-stars, Lauren Bacall and Arlene Dahl. It was a box office success.

In a complete departure from her screen image, she agreed to play Jose Ferrer’s domineering, jealous and manipulative wife in The Shrike (1955). During the course of the story, the character played by June is compared to a shrike, an innocent-looking bird which impales its prey. Although the original 1952 Broadway play concluded with a dour note, the end of the movie was altered by Universal to offer a more positive conclusion, enabling the wife to express her regrets. It was assumed that audiences were not ready to accept June Allyson as a wholly negative character. Nevertheless, the public stayed away from The Shrike.

She was back to more familiar fare as another perfect wife, this time Alan Ladd’s, in Warner’s The McConnell Story (1955). During filming, there were rumours of an off-screen affair between the two stars. The McConnell Story proved much more popular with audiences than The Shrike.

In February 1955, she received the 'Year’s Most Popular Actress ' Photoplay award, which recognised her audience appeal in 1954. In 1955, she placed 9th on the list of the ten most popular stars at the U.S. box office.

French or Belgian postcard, no. 850. June Allyson in The Reformer and the Redhead (Norman Panama, Melvin Frank, 1950).


French or Belgian postcard, no. 552.

Four remakes in a row

June Allyson then starred in four remakes in a row, which, as a whole, suffered by comparison with the originals.

M.G.M’s The Opposite Sex (1956) was a musical version of The Women (1939), but director David Miller was no George Cukor. Despite its cast, which, besides June, included Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller, Joan Blondell, Dolores Gray, Agnes Moorehead and Charlotte Greenwood, it didn’t meet the expected success.

Columbia’s You Can’t Run Away from It (1956) was directed by Dick Powell. It was a remake of It Happened One Night (1934), which had won five Oscars at the time, including one for Claudette Colbert, one for Clark Gable and one for director Frank Capra. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any Oscar nomination for You Can’t Run Away from It.

Universal’s Interlude (1957) benefited from Douglas Sirk’s direction and from beautiful Bavarian and Austrian locations, but it was quite a hard task for June and Rossano Brazzi to compete with the screen chemistry Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer had displayed in When Tomorrow Comes (1939). Later, Interlude would get some critical reevaluation.

Finally came My Man Godfrey (1957), again at Universal. The 1936 version, starring Carole Lombard and William Powell, was a Screwball Comedy classic. The same couldn’t be said of the remake.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 950. June Allyson and her daughter Pamela.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 75.

Last appearances on the big screen

After A Stranger in My Arms (1959), opposite Jeff Chandler, which was a box-office disappointment, she only made very few appearances on the big screen.

June Allyson played a lesbian murderess in They Only Kill Their Masters (1972).

She later was featured in Blackout (1978), about four criminals terrorising the occupants of an apartment complex during the 1977 New York blackout.

She briefly appeared in A Girl, Three Guys and a Gun, which premiered in 2000 at the Cinequest Film Festival and later was released on the video circuit.

Allyson also co-hosted the M.G.M. compilation film That’s Entertainment III (1994).


Dutch postcard, no. A. x. 464. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 651. June Allyson and Ricardo Montalban in Right Cross (John Sturges, 1950).

Television and stage

June Allyson was much more active on television.

From September 1959 to April 1961, she hosted The DuPont Show with June Allyson, an anthology drama series in a format similar to The Loretta Young Show. She acted in 17 of the 57 episodes.

She appeared in popular series such as Burke’s Law, The Incredible Hulk, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart and Murder, She Wrote. She was also featured in the TV movies See the Man Run in 1971, Letters from Three Lovers in 1973, Curse of the Black Widow in 1977, Three on a Date in 1978 and The Kid with the Broken Halo in 1982.

She guest-starred in various panel game shows, musical variety series and talk shows such as I’ve Got a Secret, What’s My Line?, The Perry Como Show, The Judy Garland Show, The Match Game, The Mike Douglas Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, Larry King Live, …

She occasionally appeared on stage. She notably replaced Julie Harris in the Broadway play 'Forty Carats' on the 5th of January 1970 and played it for several months. She also toured with 'No, No Nanette' in 1971 and 1972.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 952. June Allyson in Too Young to Kiss (Robert Z. Leonard, 1951). In the film, she plays a pianist masquerading as a 14-year-old child prodigy.


French or Belgian postcard, no. 952. June Allyson and Van Johnson in Too Young to Kiss (Robert Z. Leonard, 1951).

Depend spokeswoman

In the first part of the 1980s, June Allyson became the spokeswoman for Depend undergarments, a Kimberly-Clark Corporation line especially designed for adults suffering from bladder leakage, and this association would last for many years. June said she accepted because her mother faced a similar problem.

The marketing campaigns, with the catchphrase 'Get Back into Life', helped reduce the social stigma of incontinence.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed her to the Federal Council on Ageing.

At the end of the 1990s, the June Allyson Foundation, whose main goal was to help research the causes and management of pelvic floor disorders and incontinence, was established.

In 2008, it would merge with the AUGS (American Urogynecologic Society).


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 1792. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


Belgian postcard, no. 951. June Alyson and Dick Powell.

Her private life

June Allyson fell in love with Dick Powell during the filming of Meet the People (1944), and they married in 1945. They adopted a daughter, Pamela, in 1948, and had a son, Robert Jr., in 1950.

In 1961, June filed for divorce, but the couple soon reconciled and stayed married until Powell’s death in January 1963.

Unable to cope with a deep sense of loss, she married Glenn Maxwell, a men’s hair stylist, in October 1963. They divorced in 1965 but remarried in 1966. They finally divorced for good in 1970. About this difficult period, she later said: "When Dick Powell went away, my life went mad. For eight years, I lived in a tunnel. I was like a blind person. I handled his death very badly."

In 1976, she married Dr. David Ashrow, with whom she found emotional stability.

June Allyson died on the 8th of July 2006 from pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. A.X. 1744. Photo: Universal. June Allyson and James Stewart in The Glenn Miller Story (Anthony Mann, 1954).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin. June Allyson and Harry James in The Opposite Sex (David Miller, 1956).

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.

Martha Orlanda

Martha Orlanda (1886-1970) was a German silent film actress and screenwriter. Her best-known film is the Aufklärungsfilm Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1919), which caused a scandal when it premiered. After 20 films, she already retired from the film business at the beginning of the 1920s.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 804. Photo: B.J.G.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 139. Photo: B.J.G.

An experiment at 13

Martha Orlanda was born Matyha Schlinkmann in 1886 in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium. She first attended elementary school and then a secondary school for girls. There are claims that she auditioned at the age of 13 at the Residenz Theatre in Cologne to perform there. The girl was eventually hired for a monthly salary of 75 marks. However, her relatives ended this ‘experiment’ after a year.

In 1917, the 30-year-old Schlinkmann moved to Berlin with her mother, Josephine Schlinkmann. In the capital, director William Kahn discovered her and brought her in front of the camera as Martha Orlanda.

Martha Orlanda made her silent film debut as murder victim Izza Dombronowska in Der Fall Dombronowska-Clemenceau / The Clemenceau Case (William Kahn, 1917), alongside Carl Auen as the councillor and Ludwig Hartau as the murderer, Pierre Clemenceau.

The story is based on the novel 'L’affaire Clemenceau' (1866) by Alexandre Dumas fils. That year, another film adaptation was made of the novel in Italy, Il processo Clemenceau (1917), starring the diva Francesca Bertini.

Orlanda wrote the script for her next film, Wenn Frauen lieben und hassen / When Women Love and Hate (Jaap Speijer, 1917), also with Ludwig Hartau, Ernst Hofmann, Werner Krauss and Mia Pankau. 


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1705. Photo: A. Binder.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2255. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.

A highly speculative educational and social drama

By the end of 1921, Martha Orlanda had made twelve films, for which she sometimes also wrote the screenplays, including for Menschen, die durchs Leben irren / People who wander through life (William Wauer, 1918) and Die nach Liebe dürsten / Those Who Long For Love (Hubert Moest, 1919). Her scripts often aligned with her acting roles in similar melodramatic subjects, allowing her to shape narratives that reflected the era's interest in provocative and cautionary tales. Orlanda's dual role as performer and writer exemplified the fluid creative boundaries in early German cinema, where actors occasionally contributed directly to story development.

Otto Rippert's two-part drama Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1919) caused a major scandal when it premiered. Orlanda did not contribute to the screenplay, which was written by Julius Sternheim. The film is regarded as one of the most significant and best-known Aufklärungsfilme (Enlightenment films about taboo subjects), which were made primarily in 1918–1919, during the period of upheaval after World War I, when there was no film censorship. Alongside Richard Oswald, Rippert was the best-known and most important figure in this genre. This highly speculative educational and social drama was intended as a warning against the dangers of the trafficking of young women, a popular theme in German and Danish cinema of the 1910s and 1920s.

Her other silent films also dealt predominantly with dramatic or melodramatic themes. Representative titles from her filmography include Stürme des Lebens (1918), Prärieblut (1920), and Die kleine Dagmar (1921). Her final film was Brudermord / Fratricide (Wolfgang Neff, 1922) with Robert Scholz. In 1922, Orlanda ended her short-lived film career.

On 26 September 1924, Martha Orlanda married Theodor Schulte-Holthausen (1889–1945), a lawyer and then senior government official at the Reichsversorgungsgericht. They had a son in 1926. Her husband died in Soviet captivity a few months after the end of the Second World War.

Martha Orlanda continued to live in Berlin-Wilmersdorf until the mid-1950s, before moving to Heessen in Westphalia to be with her son and his family. At the age of 80, she finally moved to a retirement home in the pilgrimage town of Neviges, where she had many friends. The former actress died there in May 1970.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 123/2. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 123/4. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

Sources: The German Early Cinema Database, IMDb and Wikipedia (German).