Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 195. Photo: Ciolfi / ACi Film.
Laura Solari (1913–1984) was an Italian film actress, who also appeared in German films. 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 the 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 theatre 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 (Max Neufeld, 1939), 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 by ASER, no. 236 Photo: Ciolfi / Aci Film.
Leonardo Cortese (1916-1984) was a matinee idol of the Italian cinema of the 1940s. He starred in such films as Sissignora (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.
Leonardo Cortese, also known by the pseudonym Leo Passatore was born in Rome, in 1916. He was the son of the Neapolitan businessman and journalist Luca Cortese and Beatrice Arena. After his university studies at the Faculty of Law, he became a student at the National Academy of Dramatic Art. As soon as he finished his courses, he made his debut on the screen in 1938. Soon he starred in such light entertainment films as La Vedova/The Widow (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1939) with Isa Pola, Cavalleria rusticana (Amleto Palermi, 1939), Sissignora/Yes, Madam (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1941) starring Maria Denis, and Un garibaldino al convento/A Garibaldian in the Convent (Vittorio De Sica, 1942) opposite Maria Mercader and Carla Del Poggio. He also appeared in the war drama I tre aquilotti/The Three Pilots (Mario Mattoli, 1942) also starring Michela Belmonte and Alberto Sordi. Cortese made his stage debut in the 1940-1941 season when he was signed by Filippo Scelzo's company. In 1942 he was part of the company directed by Ermete Zacconi and in 1943 he had great success at the Teatro Delle Arti in Rome together with Margherita Bagni, Ermete Zacconi, and Camillo Pilotto. At the end of the war, he formed a company with Bagni and Luigi Almirante, and in 1947 he also took part in a revue directed by Adolfo Celi, 'E lui dice...' with Alberto Sordi. Since his film debut, he was among the most applauded and highly-rated young men both before and after the war. He became a favourite with the public, especially women. Pleasant and good-looking, he was one of the Italian cinema's most popular actors. Leonardo Cortese appeared in 39 films between 1938 and 1962.
Towards the beginning of the 1950s, he began to withdraw from cinema to devote himself to television, both as an actor and as a director. Educated and skilled, he also directed eight films between 1952 and 1967. His documentary Chi è di scena? won first prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival. Among his features are Art. 519 Codice Penale/Article 519, Penal Code (Leonardo Cortese, 1952) with Henri Vidal, and Violenza sul Lago/Violence at the Lake (Leonardo Cortese, 1954) starring Lia Amanda and Erno Crisa. His last film direction was the documentary Russia sotto inchiesta/Russia under investigation (1962) in collaboration with Romolo Marcellini and Tamara Lisizian. As a television actor he appeared in the original Vacanze ai quartieri alti (Daniele D'Anza, 1956), the TV Mini-Series Capitan Fracassa/Captain Fracasse (Anton Giulio Majano, Anton Giulio Majano, 1958) and L'isola del tesoro/Treasure Island (1959). More significant was his career as a television director. Cortese began to direct in the early 1960s. In 1965, he shot a documentary for RAI that took him around Europe, visiting and describing various locations in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. In 1965-1966, he also directed the Mini-Series La figlia del capitano/The Captain's daughter (1965) with Umberto Orsini, and Luisa Sanfelice (1965), both of which were broadcast in seven episodes and were a great success among audiences and critics. He returned to direct Oltre il buio/Beyond the Darkness (1967) and obtained excellent acclaim with the series Sheridan, squadra omicidi/Sheridan, Murder Squad (1967). But his greatest successes were three crime series written by Mario Casacci and Alberto Ciambricco: La donna di quadri/The woman of paintings (1968), La donna di cuori/The woman of hearts (1969), and La donna di picche/The woman of spades (1972), all starring Ubaldo Lay. He also directed Un certo Harry Brent/A Man Called Harry Brent (1970) based on a play by Francis Durbridge and starring Alberto Lupo. Under the pseudonym of Leo Passatore, he wrote as a theatre critic in specialised magazines, such as the weekly Idea. He was also the author of a novel entitled 'Papà magnifico' (1950). In October 1977 he became the widower of Margherita Ligios, whom he had married in 1941, at the height of his film fame. In the same year he directed Traffico d'armi nel golfo, a miniseries for TV, with Renato De Carmine and Lorenza Guerrieri. Leonardo Cortese passed away in Rome in 1984. He was 68.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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Italian postcard. Stabililmenti Angeli, Terni. Ed. A. Terzoli, Roma, No. 305. Photo by Ciolfi.
Fausto Guerzoni (Nonantola, 13 January 1904 – Roma, 1 June 1967) was an Italian actor.
Born in the province of Modena, Guerzoni began his career as a young comic actor in the avant-garde and variety theatre. Among the companies that cast him were Nuto Navarrini, Isa Bluette and Marisa Maresca. He was discovered by Mario Camerini, who made him debut in cinema in the film Darò un milione (I'll give you a million) in 1935, a film with which he began a career in over a hundred films. He frequently appeared as a character actor in RAI's television drama, from the beginning of its broadcasts in 1954. He worked until the mid-1960s, dying shortly afterwards in 1967.
(Source: Italian Wikipedia, IMDb)
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Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia, Edizoni, Roma), no. 213. Photo: Ciolfi. Michela Belmonte and Leonardo Cortese in I tre aquilotti/The Three Pilots (Mario Mattoli, 1942).
Michela Belmonte, stage name of Michela Beomonte (Padoa, 30 October 1925 – Alicante, 7 July 1978), was an Italian actress, and the younger sister of actress Maria Denis. 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.
After attending secondary school, Belmonte moved to Rome to try to get into film. She was noticed by Rossellini who hired for a small part opposite male lead Massimo Girotti in Un pilota ritorna (1942). Yet, this part was impressive enough for Mario Mattoli to let her play one of the protagonists of the film I 3 acquelotti/The 3 eagles (1942), next to Alberto Sordi, Carlo Minello, and Leonardo Cortese. In 1943 she made her third and final film, Il nostro prossimo (1943), directed by Gherardi and Antonio Rossi, and with Belmonte starring alongside Antonio Gandusio, Maurizio D'Ancora, Rina Morelli and Paolo Stoppa. Belmonte then he left the world of cinema to deal with literature and archeology.
Sources: IMDB, Italian Wikipedia.
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Italian postcard. Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1942. Photo by Ciolfi.
Luisella Beghi (1921-2006) was an Italian actress.
Beghi was born in Parma from a modest family (her father was a chauffeur and her mother a housewife). She began attending commercial schools, which she interrupted in 1935 when, even before turning 15, she moved to Rome becoming one of the first pupils of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where she was received with great favor by the director Luigi Chiarini. Although she completely had to learn acting when she entered the film school, and despite a shy character, she almost immediately revealed her native and spontaneous qualities as an actress. Graduated in acting in 1938, at the age of 17 she made her debut in cinema with Amleto Palermi in a small part of a telephonist in le due madri/The Two Mothers (1938). After this first try, she played other modest supporting parts, including an extra part in Giuseppe Verdi (1939) by Carmine Gallone and in Piccolo hotel (1939) by Piero Ballerini. Producers insisted on presenting her in roles of the shy, submissive and good girl, comparable to the Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan and, again ina generic part, she acted in Batticuore (1939), where she was noticed by the director Mario Camerini.
The professional encounter with Camerini constituted the turning point of Beghi's career: it was in fact this very person who in 1939 chose her to work alongside the "diva", as well as his wife, Assia Noris in Grandi magazzin (1939), as Emilia, a shy saleswoman and faithful friend of the protagonist, binding her forever to the role of the fresh, young and naive girl, and contributing to the success of the film at the Venice film festival. Camerini's film constituted her "consecration", with which she obtained popularity and, in the period between 1940 and 1943, her most significant roles, where «she was appreciated for her adherence to the characters and a appropriate acting», always with mild and delicate girl roles. She was Constance Weber, Mozart's neglected wife, opposite Gino Cervi as Mozart in the Melodie eterne/ Eternal Melodies (1940) by Carmine Gallone, and the shy daughter of a father in capricious trouble in Guido Brignone's film Turbamento (1940). When in 1940, she was a passenger of the demonic ship of L'arcidiavolo (1940) by Tony Frenguelli, it would be Corriere della Sera to recognize that her interpretation was the only element that managed to make the film appreciated.
In 1942 Chiarini still focused on Beghi, this time as an established actress, so when the Centro Sperimentale moved to Quadraro. near Cinecittà, he produced his first film in that new location. Beghi was made the protagonist of the calligraphic film Via delle Cinque Lune, which also included other representatives of the film school, Umberto Barbaro and Francesco Pasinetti. The film, based on a story by Matilde Serao, is considered the "brightest point of (her) career, with an extraordinarily measured and mature acting". Her appreciated role as Ines, "the dreamy girlfriend, victim of a bad stepmother" (Olga Solbelli), who seduces the spouse promised to her (Beghi's colleague from the film school, Andrea Checchi) and pushes her to suicide, it seems the confirmation of a bright career. More leads Beghi had in Il chiromante (Oreste Biancoli, 1941) with Macario, All'ombra della gloria (Pino Mercanti, shot 1943, released 1945), La moglie in castigo (Leo Menardi, 1943) with Roberto Villa, and Gran premio (Giuseppe Musso jr., 1944) with Claudio Gora.
But also for Beghi, as well as for many other artists, the collapse of Italy due to the war events, constitutes an unbridgeable break in her artistic path. The new post-war Italian cinema was not generous with the actress, who would continue with interpretations of a naive woman, but would have few roles and of little importance. Even some of her participations in stage plays in 1949 remained without development. To report, in this period, only a main role in the successful film Nennella (Renato May, 1949). After a brief appearance in La bella di Roma (Luigi Comencini, 1955), she decided to leave the world of entertainment to devote herself to family and children.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB.
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