German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie Series by Ross Verlag, no 6 (of 300). Photo: Ufa. The card was a supplement to 'Edelzigarette' (precious cigarette) Kurmark.
German actress Brigitte Helm (1908-1996) is still famous for her dual role as Maria and her double the evil Maria, the Maschinenmensch, in the silent SF classic Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). After Metropolis she made a string of over 30 films in which she almost always had the starring role. She easily made the transition to sound films, before she abruptly retired in 1935.
Brigitte Helm was born as Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm in Berlin, Germany, in 1906 (some sources say 1908). Her father was a Prussian army officer, who left his wife a widow not long after. Brigitte gained her acting experience in school productions but never thought of acting classes. After her school exams, she wanted to be an astronomer. But then she was discovered by the famous director Fritz Lang for the lead in Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927), then the most expensive German film ever made. Her mother had sent a photograph of her beautiful 16-years-old daughter to Lang's wife, scriptwriter Thea von Harbou. Helm was invited to the set of Die Nibelungen and was given a screen test. She got the double role of the noble and virginal Maria and her evil and sensual twin, the Maschinenmensch, a robot created to urge the workers in revolting and destroy their own city. In their 1996 obituary in The New York Times, Robert McThomas and Peter Herzog note: "The film depicts the world of 2006, a time, Lang envisioned, when a ruling class lives in decadent luxury in the loft heights of skyscrapers linked by aerial railways, while beneath the streets slave-like workers toll in unbearable conditions to sustain their masters. But for all the steam and special effects, for many who have seen the movie in its various incarnations, including a tinted version and one accompanied by music, the most compelling lingering image is neither the towers above nor the hellish factories below. It is the staring transformation of Ms. Helm from an idealistic young woman into a barely clad creature performing a lascivious dance in a brothel." Metropolis made Brigitte Helm a star overnight.
UFA gave Brigitte Helm a contract, and over the next 10 years, she acted in 29 German, French, and English films. She was cast as the evil but oh so seductive protagonist in the Sci-Fi-horror film Alraune. First in the silent version of 1928, directed by Henrik Galeen. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Hanns Heinz Ewers' grim science-fiction novel 'Alraune' has already been filmed twice when this version was assembled in 1928. In another of his 'mad doctor' roles, Paul Wegener plays Professor Brinken, the sociopathic scientist who combines the genes of an executed murderer with those of a prostitute. The result is a beautiful young woman named Alraune (Brigitte Helm), who is incapable of feeling any real emotions - least of all guilt or regret. Upon attaining adulthood, Alraune sets about to seduce and destroy every male who crosses her path. Ultimately, Professor Brinken is hoist on his own petard when he falls hopelessly in love with Alraune himself." Two years later Helm also starred in the sound version, Alraune/A Daughter of Destiny (Richard Oswald, 1930), for which the Dutch postcard lower in this post was made.
Brigitte Helm played a helpless blind woman who is seduced by a rogue in the wartime melodrama Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney/The Love of Jeanne Ney (G.W. Pabst, 1927). It was Brigitte Helm's first project with Georg Wilhelm Pabst, the director who could - better than any other director - bring out her mysterious adaptability. In his films Abwege/The Devious Path (1928) and L’Atlantide/Die Herrin von Atlantis/Queen of Atlantis (1932) she proved that she could perform more restrained and emotionally expressive characters. In Abwege, she portrays a spoilt woman of the world who from sheer boredom almost destroys her own life. In L'Atlantide (1932), Helm plays a goddess, the mere sight of whom makes men crazy. Werner Sudendorff wrote in his obituary of Helm in The Independent: "Her power is not of this world, but incomprehensible, magical. This was Helm's last really great role, a legendary mysterious sphinx of the German cinema." These films and Marcel L'Herbier's late silent film L'Argent/The Money (Marcel L’ Herbier, 1928) allowed Helm to act outside the tired cliches she was later often subjected to by scriptwriters and producers.
Brigitte Helm's first sound film was the musical Die singende Stadt/City of Song (Carmine Gallone, 1930) with Jan Kiepura. She also appeared in the French and English versions of her German films. Werner Sudendorff: "In her films of the early 1930s, Brigitte Helm became the embodiment of the down-to-earth, affluent modern woman. With her slim figure and austere pre-Raphaelite profile, she seems unapproachable, a model fashion-conscious woman, under whose ice-cold outer appearance criminal energies flicker." However, her sound films, like Gloria (Hans Behrendt, 1931), The Blue Danube (Herbert Wilcox, 1932), and Gold/L’Or (Karl Hartl, 1934), do not have the artistic cachet of her best silent films. Her relationship with the Ufa happened to be very rocky. While the studio had made her a star and kept increasing her pay, the actress was unhappy with the material the Ufa offered her and she was annoyed about the restrictive clauses dictating her weight.
Reportedly Brigitte Helm was Josef Von Sternberg's original choice for the starring role of Der Blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930), but the part went to Marlene Dietrich. Helm was also James Whale's first choice for his Bride of Frankenstein (1935), but reportedly she refused to go to America. In 1935, angered by the Nazi control of the German film industry, she didn’t extend her contract with the Ufa. Perhaps another reason for her decision were the negative press reports about her many traffic accidents and the short prison sentence as a result of it. Her last film was Ein Idealer Gatte/An Ideal Husband (Herbert Selpin, 1935), an adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde.
In private, Brigitte Helm was a timid, modest, and not very ambitious personality. In 1935, after a short but prolific career of 32 films, she married Dr. Hugo Von Kunheim, a German industrialist of Jewish descent, and retired. Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "in addition to no longer needing to pursue her acting, with which she was never 100-percent comfortable, she was repelled by the takeover of the German movie industry by the Hitler government. Her marital status, coupled with her anti-Nazi political views, made it impossible for Helm to continue working in movies or living in Germany. From 1935 onward, the couple lived in Switzerland. After the war, they divided their time between Germany and Switzerland, but Helm chose to live quietly and remain anonymous." The pair would raise four children. In 1968 Helm received the Filmband in Gold for “continued outstanding individual contributions to German film over the years". She steadfastly refused to appear in a film again, nor even grant an interview about her film career, but she always answered requests from her old fans for her signature. Brigitte Helm died in 1996 in Ascona, Switzerland. In particular, her Evil Maria won't be forgotten. Apt for her is the Mae West line: "When I am good, I am very good; but when I am bad, I am better."
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio), Robert McThomas and Peter Herzog (The New York Times), Werner Sudendorff (The Independent), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Film Reference, Lenin Imports, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie by Ross Verlag for Edelzigarette Kurmark, series 2, no. 47 (of 300). Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933).
Swedish Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was one of the greatest and most glamorous film stars ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. She was part of the Golden Age of the silent cinema of the 1920s and was one of the few actors who made a glorious transition to the talkies. She started her career in European cinema and would always stay more popular in Europe than in the USA.
American actor, screenwriter, and director John Gilbert (1899-1936) rose to fame during the silent film era and became a popular leading man known as 'The Great Lover'.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie by Ross Verlag for Kurmark cigarettes, no. 55. Photo: Hisa-Film.
German-born, British stage and screen actress Dolly Haas (1910-1994) was popular in the 1930s as a vivacious, red-haired gamine often wearing trousers in German and British films. Although she got a 3-year contract with Columbia and she worked in Hollywood with Alfred Hitchcock, Dolly's American career mainly took place on and Off-Broadway.
Dolly Haas was born Dorothy Clara Louise Haas (some sources write Hass) in 1910 in Hamburg, Germany. She was British: her grandfather was a Dane who lived in England and married an Englishwoman. Her father, Charles Oswald Haas, a bookseller and friend of Sir Henry Wood, had married the Austrian Margarete Maria née Hansen and settled in Hamburg. At six, Dolly started with ballet lessons, and she had her first public dance performance in a production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat). From 1917 until 1927, Dolly attended the progressive lyceum of Dr. Löwenberg. After her graduation, she went to Berlin where Erik Charell gave her a large supporting role in his stage production of Mikado. In 1930 the famous Max Reinhardt offered her an engagement in his stage production 'Wie werde ich reich und glücklich' (How Do I Become Rich and Happy)(Erich Engel, 1930). That same year she made her film debut as a department doll who comes to life in Eine Stunde Glück/One Summer of Happiness (Wilhelm (William) Dieterle, 1930). Her second film was Dolly macht Karriere/Dolly's Way to Stardom (1930), the directorial debut of Anatole Litvak. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Dolly's Career top-bills the delightful Dolly Haas in the title role. It's a harmless little story about a starry-eyed chorus girl who hopes to become a big star and also keep her virtue, and of the various antagonists who try to prevent her from doing either. The film is highlighted by a number of elaborate dance sequences, gracefully performed by Haas and cleverly choreographed by Ernst Matray." The film title seemed prophetic for her future.
Dolly Haas continued her stage career as a dancer, singer, and streetwise girl. In her films, she often embodied a delicate and lovely child-woman who is superior to her male partners because of her wit and energy. Popular comedies with her were Der brave Sünder/The Upright Sinner (Fritz Kortner, 1931) with Max Pallenberg and Heinz Rühmann, So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (Fritz Kortner, 1932) with Willi Forst and Oskar Sima, and Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße/Scampolo (Hans Steinhoff, 1932) with Karl Ludwig Diehl. She regularly acted in 'Hosenrolle’ (roles in trousers), such as in Liebeskommando/Love's Command (Géza von Bolváry, 1931) with Gustav Fröhlich. Dolly played a girl who masquerades as her brother in order to join the military academy. Anti-semitic protests followed the premiere of Das hässliche Mädchen/The Ugly Girl (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1933). It came to riots against her Jewish co-star Max Hansen. The names of Jewish director Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster) and writer Felix Joachimson (later Felix Jackson) were taken off the credits. IMDb: "This was the last film that Henry Koster directed in Berlin before having to leave due to Nazis. He left Berlin, having knocked out an SS officer, one day before filming was finished on the movie. The Nazis removed his name from the credits and substituted the name of Hasse Preiss, the lyricist."
After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Dolly Haas and her first husband, the director Hans Brahm (later John Brahm), moved to England. There, she again donned trousers for Girls Will Be Boys (Marcel Varnel, 1934). It involved her getting work at the all-male estate of a misogynistic duke (Cyril Maude). Only when she is saved from drowning while swimming in the nude, her gender is revealed. She played in two more British films, including Broken Blossoms (John Brahm, 1936) a remake of the silent masterpiece. First, D.W. Griffith the director of the silent version had been hired. The Guardian related in its 1994 obituary of Haas what happened: "while Dolly was contracted to play the Lillian Gish role of the Cockney waif, the director was rehearsing Ariane Borg, an unknown protegee of his. When the producers refused to use Borg, Griffith left to be replaced by Brahm. Delicately lovely, Haas, who researched the role by visiting Limehouse to watch slum children at play, was the saving grace of the film." Her last British picture, before going to the US with her husband, was Spy Of Napoleon (Maurice Elvey, 1937), in which she was a dancer who believes herself to be Louis Napoleon's illegitimate daughter. In 1936 Haas signed a 3-year contract with Columbia and went to Hollywood, but after an 18-month wait for the right role, she left for New York.
Dolly Haas became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1940 and made her New York stage debut in Erwin Piscator's production of the Chinese fantasy 'The Circle of Chalk' (1941). She had met famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld when the artist was on assignment to draw a sketch of a summer theater company for The New York Times. In 1942 they married and three years later their daughter Nina was born. At that time Dolly had a successful career on and Off-Broadway and she appeared a.o. with John Gielgud and Lilian Gish in a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' (Theodore Komisarjevsky, 1947) at the National Theatre. She was also in the Off-Broadway productions of 'The Threepenny Opera' and 'Brecht on Brecht'. Her only major film role - after a 17-year absence on the screen - was in the high-profile I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953). She and O. E. Hasse played an artist couple whose emigration to the US ends in tragedy. The Guardian: "she was superb as the doomed wife of the killer protected by priest Montgomery Clift's confessional vows." Thereafter she sporadically appeared on television. In 1983, the Berlin International Film Festival dedicated a retrospective to her work. Her last screen appearance was in the documentary Dolly, Lotte und Maria/Dolly, Lotte and Maria (Rosa von Praunheim, 1987) with Lotte Goslar, and Maria Ley Piscator. Mel Gussow wrote about Haas and her husband in The New York Times: "For many decades the two were an elegant couple on the aisle at all Broadway opening nights, watching the actors and actresses whom Mr. Hirschfeld would sketch for The New York Times." They remained happily married until her death in 1994 at 84. Dolly Haas's ashes were scattered in the English Channel off Alderney, where her sister lived and died.
Sources: Mel Gussow (The New York Times), The Guardian, Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, German Continental Strangers (Dartmouth.edu), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie by Ross Verlag for Kurmark cigarettes. Photo: Dolly Haas in Warum lügt Fräulein Käthe?/Why is Miss Käthe lying? (Georg Jacoby, 1935).
German-born, British stage and screen actress Dolly Haas (1910-1994) was popular in the 1930s as a vivacious, red-haired gamine often wearing trousers in German and British films. Although she got a 3-year contract with Columbia and she worked in Hollywood with Alfred Hitchcock, Dolly's American career mainly took place on and Off-Broadway.
Dolly Haas was born Dorothy Clara Louise Haas (some sources write Hass) in 1910 in Hamburg, Germany. She was British: her grandfather was a Dane who lived in England and married an Englishwoman. Her father, Charles Oswald Haas, a bookseller and friend of Sir Henry Wood, had married the Austrian Margarete Maria née Hansen and settled in Hamburg. At six, Dolly started with ballet lessons, and she had her first public dance performance in a production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat). From 1917 until 1927, Dolly attended the progressive lyceum of Dr. Löwenberg. After her graduation, she went to Berlin where Erik Charell gave her a large supporting role in his stage production of Mikado. In 1930 the famous Max Reinhardt offered her an engagement in his stage production 'Wie werde ich reich und glücklich' (How Do I Become Rich and Happy)(Erich Engel, 1930). That same year she made her film debut as a department doll who comes to life in Eine Stunde Glück/One Summer of Happiness (Wilhelm (William) Dieterle, 1930). Her second film was Dolly macht Karriere/Dolly's Way to Stardom (1930), the directorial debut of Anatole Litvak. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Dolly's Career top-bills the delightful Dolly Haas in the title role. It's a harmless little story about a starry-eyed chorus girl who hopes to become a big star and also keep her virtue, and of the various antagonists who try to prevent her from doing either. The film is highlighted by a number of elaborate dance sequences, gracefully performed by Haas and cleverly choreographed by Ernst Matray." The film title seemed prophetic for her future.
Dolly Haas continued her stage career as a dancer, singer, and streetwise girl. In her films, she often embodied a delicate and lovely child-woman who is superior to her male partners because of her wit and energy. Popular comedies with her were Der brave Sünder/The Upright Sinner (Fritz Kortner, 1931) with Max Pallenberg and Heinz Rühmann, So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/A Girl You Don't Forget (Fritz Kortner, 1932) with Willi Forst and Oskar Sima, and Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße/Scampolo (Hans Steinhoff, 1932) with Karl Ludwig Diehl. She regularly acted in 'Hosenrolle’ (roles in trousers), such as in Liebeskommando/Love's Command (Géza von Bolváry, 1931) with Gustav Fröhlich. Dolly played a girl who masquerades as her brother in order to join the military academy. Anti-semitic protests followed the premiere of Das hässliche Mädchen/The Ugly Girl (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1933). It came to riots against her Jewish co-star Max Hansen. The names of Jewish director Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster) and writer Felix Joachimson (later Felix Jackson) were taken off the credits. IMDb: "This was the last film that Henry Koster directed in Berlin before having to leave due to Nazis. He left Berlin, having knocked out an SS officer, one day before filming was finished on the movie. The Nazis removed his name from the credits and substituted the name of Hasse Preiss, the lyricist."
After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Dolly Haas and her first husband, the director Hans Brahm (later John Brahm), moved to England. There, she again donned trousers for Girls Will Be Boys (Marcel Varnel, 1934). It involved her getting work at the all-male estate of a misogynistic duke (Cyril Maude). Only when she is saved from drowning while swimming in the nude, her gender is revealed. She played in two more British films, including Broken Blossoms (John Brahm, 1936) a remake of the silent masterpiece. First, D.W. Griffith the director of the silent version had been hired. The Guardian related in its 1994 obituary of Haas what happened: "while Dolly was contracted to play the Lillian Gish role of the Cockney waif, the director was rehearsing Ariane Borg, an unknown protegee of his. When the producers refused to use Borg, Griffith left to be replaced by Brahm. Delicately lovely, Haas, who researched the role by visiting Limehouse to watch slum children at play, was the saving grace of the film." Her last British picture, before going to the US with her husband, was Spy Of Napoleon (Maurice Elvey, 1937), in which she was a dancer who believes herself to be Louis Napoleon's illegitimate daughter. In 1936 Haas signed a 3-year contract with Columbia and went to Hollywood, but after an 18-month wait for the right role, she left for New York.
Dolly Haas became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1940 and made her New York stage debut in Erwin Piscator's production of the Chinese fantasy 'The Circle of Chalk' (1941). She had met famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld when the artist was on assignment to draw a sketch of a summer theater company for The New York Times. In 1942 they married and three years later their daughter Nina was born. At that time Dolly had a successful career on and Off-Broadway and she appeared a.o. with John Gielgud and Lilian Gish in a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' (Theodore Komisarjevsky, 1947) at the National Theatre. She was also in the Off-Broadway productions of 'The Threepenny Opera' and 'Brecht on Brecht'. Her only major film role - after a 17-year absence on the screen - was in the high-profile I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock, 1953). She and O. E. Hasse played an artist couple whose emigration to the US ends in tragedy. The Guardian: "she was superb as the doomed wife of the killer protected by priest Montgomery Clift's confessional vows." Thereafter she sporadically appeared on television. In 1983, the Berlin International Film Festival dedicated a retrospective to her work. Her last screen appearance was in the documentary Dolly, Lotte und Maria/Dolly, Lotte and Maria (Rosa von Praunheim, 1987) with Lotte Goslar, and Maria Ley Piscator. Mel Gussow wrote about Haas and her husband in The New York Times: "For many decades the two were an elegant couple on the aisle at all Broadway opening nights, watching the actors and actresses whom Mr. Hirschfeld would sketch for The New York Times." They remained happily married until her death in 1994 at 84. Dolly Haas's ashes were scattered in the English Channel off Alderney, where her sister lived and died.
Sources: Mel Gussow (The New York Times), The Guardian, Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, German Continental Strangers (Dartmouth.edu), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Tags: Dolly Haas Dolly Haas German Actress European Film Star Kino Cinema Film Movie Movies Cine Glamour Allure Vintage Collectors Card Sammelkarte Verzamelkaart Carte Cartolina Tarjet Ross-Verlag Kurmark Ross
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German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie by Ross Verlag for Kurmark cigarettes, no. 151 of 300. Photo: Fox.
Joan Bennett (1910–1990) was an American actress who had her breakthrough in Little Women (George Cukor, 1933). Producer Walter Wanger helped to manage her career and eventually married her in 1940. At the beginning of the 1940s, Bennett appeared in four films by Fritz Lang. These turned her into a femme fatale of the Film Noir.
Joan Bennett was born in Palisades Park (other sources say Fort Lee) in New Jersey as the youngest of the three daughters of actors Richard Bennett and Adrienne Morrison. Her older sisters were Constance and Barbara Bennett. Bennett started her career as an actress when she was a child. She married John Marion Fox in 1926, at the age of 16, but they divorced in 1928. She had one daughter with him. At the age of 18 she was debuting on Broadway, and, apart from bit parts in the silent era, at age 19 she had her first important film roles in the early talkies Bulldog Drummond (F. Richard Jones, 1929), starring Ronald Colman, and Disraeli (Alfred E. Green, 1929), starring George Arliss. Bennett easily made the passage to sound cinema and starred e.d. in the United Artists musical Puttin' on the Ritz (Edward Sloman, 1930). She got a contract with Fox and was featured in films as the blonde girl in e.g. She Wanted a Millionaire and Me and My Gal, both 1932. She left Fox in 1933 to act in the RKO film Little Women (George Cukor, 1933), as pert sister Amy opposite Kathryn Hepburn as Jo. Bennett struggled hard to hold on because she was not taken seriously. In addition, she was often compared negatively to her sister Constance, who had since become a superstar. In 1932 she married screenwriter & film producer Gene Markey and had one daughter with him, but they divorced in 1937.
Little Women brought Bennett to the attention of Walter Wanger, who helped to manage her career and eventually married her in 1940. Together with director Tay Garnett, Wanger managed to persuade Bennett to dye her hair brown. She was subsequently staged in films as 'the seductive woman' and received more attention. During the search for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Bennett was tested and left a good impression on producer David O. Selznick. Bennett seemed to get the role, but Selznick later became more interested in Paulette Goddard, who would eventually be replaced by Vivien Leigh. At the beginning of the 1940s, Bennett appeared in four films by Fritz Lang. Three of those films, Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945), turned Bennett into a Film Noir femme fatale. In addition, she has also appeared in films by Jean Renoir (The Woman on the Beach, 1947) and Max Ophüls (The Reckless Moment, 1949). Bennett also played the wife of Spencer Tracy and mother of Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride (Vincente Minnelli, 1950) and the sequel, Father's Little Dividend (Vincente Minnelli, 1951).
For 12 years, Bennett had the same agent, Jennings Lang. In 1951 Wanger shot down Lang, presuming they had an affair. Lang did not die but sustained serious injuries. It was considered a scandal and it destroyed Bennett's career. Wanger got only four months of prison and moved out from Bennett, but remained married to her until 1965. Bennett still managed to develop a successful career in theater and television. From 1966 to 1971, for example, she was featured in the Dark Shadows television series. For this, she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She could still be seen in a few films, including Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977). In 1978 Bennett married David Wilde, a retired businessman and movie critic. In 1990 in Scarsdale, NY, she died of a heart attack at the age of 80. For her work, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and Dutch), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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