Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 175.
Italian actress Lorella De Luca (1940-2014), after her 'discovery' at the age of 14, became the Sandra Dee of the Italian cinema of the 1950s. Her fresh and graceful appearance in hit comedies like Poveri ma belli/Poor But Beautiful (1956) endeared her to the public. De Luca was the widow of film director Duccio Tessari, in whose films she often starred. She was 73.
Lorella De Luca was born in Florence, Italy in 1940. At the age of fourteen, she was discovered by a director who followed De Luca home, and convinced her father that she should be in films. Lorella made her acting debut in Fellini’s Il bidone/The Swindlers (Federico Fellini, 1955) as Patrizia, the young daughter of middle-aged con man Augusto (Broderick Crawford). She subsequently attended the prestigious film school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. The following year, De Luca's had her breakout role in Dino Risi's comedy Poveri ma belli/Poor, But Beautiful (1956) alongside the other young actors Marisa Allasio, Renato Salvatori and Maurizio Arena. The success of the film made De Luca one of the most popular ingénues of Italian cinema; her freshness and grace endeared her to the public. She continued playing naïve young girls in hit comedies like Padri e figli/A Tailor's Maid (Mario Monicelli, 1957) as Vittorio De Sica’s daughter, Il medico e lo stregone/Doctor and the Healer (Mario Monicelli, 1957) starring De Sica and Marcello Mastroianni, Domenica è sempre domenica/Sunday Is Always Sunday (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1958), Primo Amore/First Love (Mario Camerini,1958) and Racconti d'estate/Love on the Riviera (Gianni Franciolini, 1958) with Alberto Sordi. In 1958, De Luca joined Alessandra Panaro and Mario Riva as a show girl in the popular TV quiz show Il Musichiere (The Musician). She also acted in Belle ma povere/Pretty But Poor (Dino Risi, 1957), the sequel of Poveri ma belli, again starring Maurizio Arena and Renato Salvatori, which was again followed by Poveri milionari/Poor Millionaires (Dino Risi, 1958). De Luca was one of the several women who were romantically involved with Maurizio Arena. She co-starred with him in Il principe fusto (Maurizio Arena, 1960), a film which he co-wrote, produced and directed. Their relationship created a minor scandal when it was revealed by the Italian media that Arena, after publicly announcing his intention to wed Anna Maria Pierangeli, was also engaged to De Luca.
During the 1960s, Lorella De Luca played princesses or slave girls in Peplums, the Italian ‘sword-and-sandal’ or ‘muscleman’ films, such as Nel Segno di Roma/Sheba and the Gladiator (Guido Brignone, 1959) starring Anita Ekberg. De Luca also appeared under the pseudonym Hally Hammond in the Spaghetti Westerns Una Pistola per Ringo/A Pistol for Ringo (Ducio Tessari, 1965), and its sequel Il ritorno di Ringo/The Return of Ringo (Ducio Tessari, 1965), both featuring Giuliano Gemma billed as Montgomery Wood. Earlier, director Tessari had helped write Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars, and encouraged by its success he had decided to produce his own Spaghetti Western. A Pistol for Ringo was a huge success in Italy and Spain, and also did well in the United States. Between 1965 and 1978, De Luca starred in a total of nine films directed by Tessari, including the drama Una voglia da morire/ A desire to die (Ducio Tessari, 1965) with Raf Vallone, and the spy film Kiss Kiss...Bang Bang (Ducio Tessari, 1966). In 1972, Tessari and De Luca married. She also worked behind the scenes as an assistant director. After 1967, with the birth of their two daughters Federica and Fiorenza Tessari, she accepted only occasional parts during the next decade. Her last acting roles were in The Fifth Commandment (1978) and the television miniseries Nata d'amore/Born of love (Duccio Tessari, 1984) She was actively involved in her husband's later career and was first assistant director in his final film, the comedy C'era un castello con 40 cani/There Was a Castle with Forty Dogs (Ducio Tessari, 1990) starring Peter Ustinov. De Luca made one last appearance in Bonus malus (Vito Zagarrio, 1993) and retired from the film industry after Tessari's death the following year. Their two daughters, Federica and Fiorenza Tessari, both are actresses.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 45.
Franca Marzi, stage name of Francesca Marsi (Rome, August 18, 1926 - Cinisello Balsamo, March 6, 1989), was an Italian actress, active in cinema especially in the fifties.
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Italian postcard. Bromostampa, Milano, No. 397.
Achille Togliani (Pomponesco, January 16, 1924 - Rome, August 12, 1995) was an Italian singer and actor.
Togliani was the son of the aeronautical engineer Adelmo Togliani. As a child he moved with his family to Milan where, attending an accounting institute, he was a schoolmate of actor Walter Chiari. After having attempted the path of cinema, he took part in some revues, including Moulin Rouge and Macario's Febbre Azzurra (1947): here he was noticed by maestro Cinico Angelini who wanted him in his team of "radio singers" that is the Orchestra della Canzone, where he entered in 1950.
The warm and harmonious voice combined with a movie star figure (among his youthful flames were Sophia Loren who then used the pseudonym Sofia Lazzaro, and with whom she appeared in numerous fotoromanzi of the time, as well as Adele Faccio) quickly made Togliani one of the most popular interpreters of Italian songs, with a substantially melodic repertoire that included reinterpretations of hits from the thirties and forties, such as his remakes of Parlami d'amore Mariù and Bambina innamorata are famous) and romantic passages with poignant verses such as Signorinella, La canzone dell'amore, Come pioveva, La signora di trent'anni fa, Addio Signora!, Lasciami cantare una canzone, Non si compra la fortuna, Per l'ultima volta, A luci spente, and Conoscerti. In 1986 he was a regular guest together with Carla Boni, Giorgio Consolini and Joe Sentieri in the program Un fantastico tragico venerdì for 13 episodes. After having participated in several broadcasts in the sixties (Gran varietà), seventies, eighties (Cari amici vicini e lontani) and ninety (Il caso Sanremo), he held his last concert on July 27, 1995 in Treviso in Piazza dei Signori, and then died in Rome on August 12 of the same year. His remains rest in the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.
Sources: IMDb, Italian Wikipedia.
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Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Torino, no. 124. Photo: Macari.
Erminio Macario (1902-1980), best known as Macario, was an Italian film actor and comedian. His comical style was a mixture between Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. He appeared in 42 films between 1933 and 1975.
Born in Turin in 1902, Erminio Macario made his debut at a young age in the amateur dramatics company Don Bosco Oratory in Valdocco. Then he was part of some small amateur companies of his hometown until 1924 when he was cast in the company of dancing and pantomime of Giovanni Molasso. Soon after, he entered the company of Wanda Osiris, the undisputed queen of the revue of that time in Italy. Between the two wars, he became in a short time one of the most popular comedians of the revue theater. Macario made his film debut with Aria di paese/Country Air (Eugenio de Liguoro, 1933). He played an unemployed drifter takes a series of jobs, each one of which he quickly loses. He then goes to the countryside for a while where he falls in love with a woman (Laura Adani). His breakthrough came six years later with two comedy films directed by Mario Mattoli and co-written by a young Federico Fellini, Imputato alzatevi!/Defendant, Stand Up! (Mario Mattoli, 1939) and Lo vedi come sei... lo vedi come sei?/Do you see how you are ... do you see how you are? (Mario Mattoli, 1939).
Erminio Macario starred in the comedy ll fanciullo del West/The Boy of the West (Giorgio Ferroni, 1943), named after Puccini's opera 'La fanciulla del West' (The Girl of the West). It is considered the first western parody in Italian cinema. Then followed a series of successful comedies directed by Carlo Borghesio, including Come persi la guerra/How I Lost the War (Carlo Borghesio, 1947) with Vera Carmi, and Come scopersi l'America/How I Discovered America (Carlo Borghesio, 1949) with Carlo Ninchi and Delia Scala. Since the early fifties Macario appeared in short characterisations in anthology films and was the sidekick of Totò in such films as La cambiale/The bill (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959), and Totòsexy/Sexy Toto (Mario Amendola, 1963). Starting from the mid-sixties he finally focused on television and theatre. One of his last films was the comedy Due sul pianerottolo/Two on the landing (Mario Amendola, 1976) with Rita Pavone. At the age of 77, Macario passed away in 1980 in Turin.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Milano, no. 327.
Handsome American actor Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) was one of Hollywood's first Method actors. He starred in films like the Western Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951), From Here To Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) and Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959), in which he co-starred for the third time with Elizabeth Taylor. A near-fatal auto accident in 1957 changed his looks and sent him into a drug and alcohol addiction. Clift died in 1966.
Edward Montgomery Clift was born in 1920, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. 'Monty,' as his family called him, was the son of William Clift, a successful Wall Street broker, and his wife, Ethel. Clift's early life was shaped by privilege. While his father was away on work, which was often, Ethel led her family on jaunts to Europe or Bermuda, where the Clifts had a second home. In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, however, the family's situation greatly changed. The Clifts, which included Monty's twin sister, Roberta, and a brother, Brooks, settled into a new, more modest life in Sarasota, Florida. At the age of 13, Clift started acting with a local theatre company. His mother was impressed by her son's commitment to the stage and encouraged him to pursue his craft. Shortly after the family moved to Massachusetts, the 13-years-old Clift auditioned and won a part in the Broadway play Fly Away Home. When the family moved again, this time to New York City, Clift earned a second Broadway nod as the lead in Dame Nature. The role cemented Clift, just 17 years old, as a Broadway star. Over the next decade, he appeared in several other productions, including There Shall Be No Night, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Our Town. Ed Stephan at IMDb: "His long apprenticeship on stage made him a thoroughly accomplished actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and approached his roles." For years Clift had resisted calls to jump to the big screen. He was particular about his work and his directors. He finally made the leap with the Western Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), co-starring John Wayne. His part made him an overnight sensation and instant star. He embodied a new type of man on screen, the beautiful, sensual, and vulnerable man that seemed to appeal to women and men alike. Clift's second film was The Search (Fred Zinnemann, 1948), in which he played an American G.I. in post-war Germany. The film earned him an Academy nomination for Best Actor.
The success of A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951) with Elizabeth Taylor, made Montgomery Clift Hollywood's hottest male star and he was adored by millions. He looked incredible and was a fine actor, a rare combination. Over the next decade Clift starred in several high-profile films, including Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess (1953), the box-office smash From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953), co-starring Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, and Deborah Kerr. In Italy, he filmed Stazione Termini (Vittorio De Sica, 1953). For Hollywood, Clift represented an entirely different kind of leading man. He was sensitive and vulnerable, and fearless in the roles he accepted, even if they cast him as a villain. While the film world celebrated his heartthrob status—gossip columnists constantly linked Clift with Taylor, a close friend—Clift and those around him hid the fact that he was gay. In May 1957 tragedy struck when Clift, driving home from a party at Taylor's California home, veered off the road and struck a telephone pole. The accident devastated Clift, physically and psychologically. He had already been dealing with alcohol and prescription drug problems, and his addictions soared. Over the next decade, Clift continued to work, appearing in seven more films. He received an Academy nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role of Rudolph Petersen in Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961), which co-starred Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Spencer Tracy, and Burt Lancaster. He had so many health problems on the set of Freud (John Huston, 1962) that Universal sued him for the cost of the film's production delays. During the trial, the film opened and was such a huge hit that Clift's lawyers brought up the point that the film was doing well because of Clift's involvement. Clift won a lucrative settlement. His final role came in the French-German thriller L'espion/The Defector (Raoul Lévy, 1966), in which he played an American physicist working with a CIA agent in Germany to secure the defection of a Russian scientist. Montgomery Clift died of a heart attack at his home in New York City in 1966. He was only 45.
Source: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Biography.com, and IMDb.
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