Italian postcard. ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), No. 69. Photo by Luxardo.

Leonardo Cortese (1916-1984) was a matinee idol of the Italian cinema of the 1940s. He starred in such films as Sissignora (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1941) and Un garibaldino al convento (Vittorio De Sica, 1942). After the war he started directing, first films and later on rather focusing on television.

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Italian postcard. Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1939. Photo by Luxardo.

Rubi Dalma (1906-1994), aka Rubi D'Alma, was an Italian stage and screen actress.

Born in Milan on 24 April 1996 as Giusta Manca di Villahermosa, Dalma came from an aristocratic family from Sassari. She was discovered in Milan by Camillo Mastrocinque, who had her debut in the film Regina della Scala (Queen of the Scala, Guido Salvini 1936), where basically she played herself: a daughter of a noble family. Her next film, the romantic comedy Il signor Max (Mister Max, Mario Camerini 1937), introduced her to the big audience, with her stage name Rubi Dalma. She plays the sophisticated lady Paola, courted in vain by Gianni (Vittorio De Sica), a newspaper stand vendor who pretends to be the rich snob Max Varaldo. When Lauretta (Assia Noris), donna Paola’s maid and governess of Paola’s little sister Puci (Adonella), falls in love with Gianni, Gianni has to change roles constantly to court both Paola and Lauretta. Of course this is bound to go wrong. Costumes were by Gino Carlo Sensani, sets by Gastone Medin.

Because of her origin, Dalma perfectly incarnated the nobility on the screen, which resulted in modern and historical roles tied to the Italian aristocracy, such as Batticuore (Heartbeat, Mario Camerini, 1939) again with Noris in the female lead, and Rose scarlatte (Red Roses, Giuseppe Amato, Vittorio De Sica, 1940) with Renée Saint-Cyr and De Sica himself. Similar parts Dalma had in Tempesta sul golfo (Tempest over the Gulf, Gennaro Righelli, 1943) in which Dalma played the Austrian Empress Maria Theresia, Enrico IV (Giorgio Pastinà, 1943) based on Pirandello’s play and starring Osvaldo Valenti and Clara Calamai, and Il cavaliere del sogno (Life of Donizetti, Camillo Mastrocinque, 1947), a biopic on the composer Donizetti, starring Amedeo Nazzari and Mariella Lotti. In Renato Castellani’s adaptation of Pushkin’s The Shot, Un colpo di pistola (A Pistol Shot, 1942), she is the aunt of Mascia (Assia Noris), courted by both Foscho Giacchetti and Antonio Centa. In Luigi Zampa’s C’è sempre un ma! (There Is Always a But!, 1943), Dalma plays one of two mothers who lead a party life and need to be brought back to earth (that is: petty bourgeois morals, crowned my marriage) by their daughters, played by Carla Del Poggio and Adriana Benetti. While shooting in 1942 took six months and distribution also dragged on, the film came out in 1943 in a moment the average Italian was not in the mood of a Hollywood-like script in which children need to re-educate their parents after the Roaring Twenties.

In various films and stage plays Dalma was directed by directs such as Righelli, Camerini, Guazzoni, Zampa and Antonioni. During her career Dalma participated for instance in the historical production Enrico Meucci (Enrico Guazzoni 1940) starring Luigi Pavese and a biopic of the homonymous inventor, and played the wife of marshal Bertrand in Sant’Elena, piccola isola (Saint-Helen, Little Island, Umberto Scarpelli, Renato Simoni, 1943) on Napoleon’s last exile and starring Ruggero Ruggeri as Napoleon. Among her last roles was that of the countess Teneroni in Augusto Genina’s Cielo sulla palude (Heaven over the Marshes, 1949), on the young Christian martyr Maria Goretti (played by Ines Orsini), and masterfully cinematographed by Aldo Graziati. Another late part was that of the snob friend of Paola (Lucia Bosè) in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair, 1950). Dalma’s last part was, again, that of a countess in Claudio Gora’s Febbre di vivere (Eager to Live, 1953), on the young spendthrift and gambling snob Massimo (Massimo Serato), who betrays his beloved Elena (Anna Maria Ferrero) and wants her to abort her child, while his friend Daniele (Marcelllo Mastroianni), released from prison, discovers Massimo was responsible for his imprisonment. Things go from bad to worse with Massimo. After this film, Dalma decided to finish her career as actress. At the age of 88 Rubi Dalma died on 7 August 1994 in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

Sources: English, French and Italian Wikipedia, IMDB.

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Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1942-XX. Photo: Luxardo.

Laura Solari (1913–1984) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 30 films between 1936 and 1969.

Laura Solari was born as Laura Camaur in Triest, Austria-Hungary (now Trieste, Italy) in 1913. She was the daughter of sculptor and artist Antonio Camaur and his wife, Maria Taucer. In addition to being prominent in Triestine art and intellectual circles, Antonio Camaur was a prominent Irredentist and advocated annexation of Trieste by Italy. In late 1915, Camaur went into exile because of his pro-Italian sympathies, and Laura lived in Northern Italy until her family's return to Trieste in 1919. After World War I, Laura came under the tutelage of the Taucer family who sent her to be educated in Vienna. In 1930, Laura married an older Hungarian army officer, Oscar Szemere, but the couple separated after his business failed. Laura was spotted by a talent scout, who was taken by her beauty, at a function at the La Scala theater in Milan. She was recruited by the fledging Italian film industry and acquired the stage name Laura Solari. Her debut was Regina della Scala/Queen of the Scala (Camillo Mastrocinque, Guido Salvini, 1936). In 1937 she participated in a talent contest of Era Film. She came in second and was spotted by director Camillo Mastrocinque . He gave her a big part in the mystery L'orologio a cucù/The Cuckoo Clock (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1938) opposite Vittorio de Sica. Soon followed more roles in such films as Una moglie in pericolo/A Woman in Danger (1939, Max Neufeld), in which she appeared with the French actress Marie Glory.

In 1940, Laura Solari divorced Oscar Szemere in the American city Reno in the state of Nevada. She later married Arthur Roper Caldbeck, a colonel in the British army. During the early 1940s, she was busy at the Cinecittà studios in Rome and starred in such Telefono bianco comedies as Validità giorni dieci/Validity of ten days (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1940) opposite Antonio Centa. The German production Alles für Gloria/Everything for Gloria (Carl Boese, 1941), in which she starred opposite Leo Slezak, was also filmed in Cinecittà. Other German productions in which she played lead roles were the crime comedy Die Sache mit Styx/The Styx Case (Karl Anton, 1942) with Viktor de Kowa, and the action film G.P.U./The Red Terror (Karl Ritter, 1942). Back in Italy she starred in a double role in La statua vivente/Scorned Flesh (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1943) with Fosco Giachetti as a man who tries to form her into his dead girlfriend. After the war Solari’s position had changed. She was no longer offered leading roles, but had to play secondary parts. She was a secretary in the Hollywood comedy Roman Holiday (Willy Wyler, 1953) starring Audrey Hepburn, and had a supporting role in the prostitution drama Il mondo le condanna/The World Condemned Her (Gianni Franciolini, 1953) starring Alida Valli. Solari participated in the legitimate stage in Trieste's Nuovo Teatro. She also appeared on television in such series as Police Call (1955). Her later films include the gripping crime thriller Banditi a Milano/Bandits in Milan (Carlo Lizzani, 1968) as Ray Lovelock’s mother, and Revenge (Pino Tosini, 1969). Laura Solari retired in 1969 and moved to Switzerland. There she died in Bellinzona in 1983. She was survived by three sons.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Italian postcard. Ed. Pizzi & Pizio, Milano. Photo: Luxardo, Roma. Publicity for Melloni Biancherie e Telerie, Bologna.

Laura Solari (1913 –1984) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 30 films between 1936 and 1969.

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Italian photocard. Photo Luxardo.

Cosetta Greco ( 1930 –2002) was an Italian film actress, who appeared in 31 films between 1943 and 1971. She is famous for fillms such as Il brigante di Tacca del Lupo (The Bandit of T. del L., Pietro Germi 1952), Le ragazze di piazza di Spagna (THree Girls from Rome, Luciano Emmer 1952), Gli eroi della domenica (Sunday Heroes, Mario Camerini 1953), and Cronache di poveri amanti (Chronicle of Poor Lovers, Carlo Lizzani 1954).

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