Cover page of a film programme by Illustrierte Film-Bühne, no. 6392. Gordon Mitchell in L'ira di Achille/Fury of Achilles (Marino Girolami, 1962).

Gordon Mitchell (born Charles Allen Pendleton; July 29, 1923 – September 20, 2003) was an American actor and bodybuilder who made about 200 B movies.

Mitchell had been a Marine decorated for valour during the Korean War and was then one of the ‘boys’ who accompanied actress Mae West around America with her variety show. In 1960, he moved to Italy, summoned by film producers, where he began a long career as an actor (often starring) in various B movies, including numerous peplums and Italian 'spaghetti' westerns. The first of his peplum films was Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi (Antonio Leonviola, 1961). After many peplum films (in which he often had leads), including Brenno il nemico di Roma (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1963), Mitchell remained in Italy and switched to crime films and Italo-westerns such as John il bastardo (Armando Crispino, 1967), while he played a robber in Fellini's Satyricon (1969). Because of his tall stature and his striking physiognomy, he was often cast as a villain, but he also played heroes. Mitchell returned to the United States in the late 1980s and worked as a manager at the World Gym International chain of gyms, run by Joe Gold and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He died in Marina del Rey shortly after his 80th birthday.

Tags:   peplum Antiquity program programme vintage brochure German Austrian Cinema Cine Cinema Italiano Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1960s L'ira di Achille 1962 Illustrierte Film-Bühne Gordon Mitchell

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Cover page of a film programme by Illustrierte Film-Bühne, no. 5856. Ed Fury in Ursus/The Mighty Ursus (Carlo Campogalliani, 1961).

Ed Fury (real name Rupert Edmund Holovchik; born 6 June 1928 in Long Island, NY; died 24 February 2023 in Woodland Hills, Cal.) was an American bodybuilder, model and actor. After a bodybuilding career, and working as a physique model for photographers such as Bob Mizer, collaborating with his Athletic Model Guild studio, Fury moved to Italy by 1960. Indeed, Fury is best known for starring in several Italian "sword-and-sandal" films in the early 1960s, including a trilogy on the character Ursus (1961-1963). Fury returned to acting in the early 1970s and appeared mostly in small parts in television series.

Tags:   peplum Antiquity program programme vintage brochure German Austrian Cinema Cine Cinema Italiano Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1960s Ed Fury Ursus 1961 Illustrierte Film-Bühne

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Vintage German film brochure. Illustrierte Film-Bühne, No. 1397. Maria Félix as/ in Messalina (Carmine Gallone, 1951).

Energetic, fiery femme fatale María Félix (1914–2002) was an icon of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was considered one of the most beautiful film actresses of her time, and one of the erotic myths of the Spanish-language cinema. Her career included 47 films made in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy and Argentina.

Maria de los Angeles Felix Güereña was born in Álamos, México in 1914. She was the daughter of Bernardo Félix Flores, military officer and secretary of Hacienda, and Josefina Güereña Rosas. She and her eleven siblings spent her childhood in Álamos. The family lived with dignity, despite not being rich. As a young girl, Maria enjoyed games for boys, was an accomplished horse rider and had a strong personality. When María was a teenager, her beauty soon began to attract attention. She was crowned Queen of the Beauty at the University of Guadalajara. After a brief romance with Enrique Álvarez Alatorre, a salesman for the cosmetics firm Max Factor., the couple married in 1931. In 1935, María gave birth to her only child, Enrique Quique, but the marriage was unsuccessful and the couple divorced in 1937. After her divorce, María returned to Guadalajara with her family, where she was the subject of gossip and rumors due to her status as a divorceé. María decided to move to Mexico City with her son. There she was spotted by film director Fernando Palacios. She was offered the female lead role in El Peñón de las Ánimas/The Rock of Souls (Miguel Zacarías, 1943) opposite the popular Mexican actor and singer Jorge Negrete. The plot is loosely based on the Shakespeare drama Romeo and Juliet, transferred to the early 20th Century rural areas of Mexico. In her second film, Maria Eugenia (Felipe Gregorio Castillo, 1943), María was miscast in a role out of her temperamental film personality. Maria Felix became known as La Doña for her femme fatale role in Doña Bárbara (Fernando de Fuentes, Miguel M. Delgado, 1943), based in the same name novel of the Venezuelan writer Romulo Gallegos. Doña Barbara tells the story of a Venezuelan woman, raped in her youth, who runs her ranch despotically while dressed in men's clothes and dabbles in witchcraft. To the end of her life, Félix was referred to as Doña Barbara, and her subsequent roles built on the image. It was also the start of her major collaborations with Mexican film director Fernando de Fuentes. Félix and de Fuentes filmed together another two films: La Mujer sin Alma/Woman Without a Soul (Fernando de Fuentes, 1944) and La Devoradora/Devouring (Fernando de Fuentes, 1946). With these films, María became "the number one enemy of the Mexican family morals". Maria also played out-of-type dramatic roles of great intensity in the sophisticated films El monje blanco/White monk (Julio Bracho, 1945) and Vértigo/Vertigo (Antonio Momplet, 1946).

Maria Félix made three successful films under the direction of the famous Mexican film director Emilio Fernandez. These were the delightful comedy Enamorada/In Love (1946 ), Rio Escondido/ Hidden River (1947) and Maclovia (1948). The relationship between María and Fernandez was cordial and smooth, despite the strong and famous temperament of the film director. In Enamorada, María finds her perfect film partner, actor Pedro Armendáriz. The films of María with Fernandez and his team (writer Mauricio Magdaleno, photographer Gabriel Figueroa and Armendáriz) were successfully shown at several international film festivals. Maria also worked with Roberto Gavaldón, another director who showcased some of her best performances. Their first collaboration was in La diosa arrodillada/The Kneeling Goddess (Roberto Gavaldón, 1947) with Arturo de Córdova. Thanks to these films, María's became internationally known and she started a second film career in Europe. In 1948 she was contracted by the Spanish film producer Cesreo Gonzalez. María debuted in the European cinema with Mare Nostrum (Rafael Gil, 1948) opposite Fernando Rey. In 1950, she made two more films with Gil, Una mujer cualquiera/Any Woman (Rafael Gil, 1950) with Antonio Vilar, and La noche del sábado/Saturday Night (Rafael Gil, 1950). Then she filmed the French-Spanish production La Couronne Noire/Black Crown (Luis Saslavsky, 1951) based on a story by Jean Cocteau. She debuted in Italy with Incantesimo Tragico/Tragic Spell (Mario Sequi, 1951) opposite Rossano Brazzi. In the same year, she filmed Messalina (Carmine Gallone, 1951), with Georges Marchal. At the time, it was the most expensive film of the Italian cinema. In Argentina, Maria appeared in La pasión desnuda/Naked Passion (Luis César Amadori, 1952) at the side of Carlos Thompson. She returned to Mexico to film Camelia (Cesáreo González, 1952) and she married her former co-star Jorge Negrete. Together, they filmed El rapto/The rapture (Emilio Fernández, 1954). It would be the last film of Negrete, who died in December 1953. After the death of her husband, María returned to Europe. In France she made the films La Belle Otero (Richard Pottier, 1954), and Les Heros sont Fatigues/The Heroes Are Tired (Yves Ciampi, 1955), alongside Yves Montand. However, her most important film in this period is French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954) with the legendary Jean Gabin. It chronicles the revival of Paris' most notorious dance. Her latest film shot entirely in Europe, was the Spanish production Faustina (José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, 1957) with Fernando Fernán-Gómez and Fernando Rey.

María Félix returned to Mexico in 1955. This period of her career was characterized by films inspired by the Mexican Revolution. This cycle began with La Escondida/ The Hidden One (Roberto Gavaldón, 1955). In this film, as well as in Canasta de cuentos mexicanos/Basket of Mexican Tales (Julio Bracho, 1955) and Café Colón (Benito Alazraki, 1958), she worked again with Pedro Armendáriz. In Tizoc (Ismael Rodríguez, 1956) she starred with the popular Mexican actor and singer Pedro Infante. However, the film was not liked by the actress, despite its international success. Eventually she filmed Flor de mayo/Beyond All Limits (Roberto Gavaldón, 1957) with Jack Palance, and La Cucaracha (Ismael Rodríguez, 1959), alternating with Dolores del Río, another celebrated Mexican film star with a career in Hollywood. In 1959 she performed in the Spanish-Mexican co-production Sonatas directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and the French-Mexican co-production La Fievre Monte El Pao, directed by Luis Buñuel and starring Gérard Philipe. In the 1960s María's presence in the cinema was limited to only a few films. The most prominent were Juana Gallo/The Guns of Juana Gallo (Miguel Zacarías, 1960) with Jorge Mistral, La bandida/The Bandit (Roberto Rodríguez, 1962), Amor y sexo/Sapho '63 (Luis Alcoriza, 1963) - the only film where she could be seen partially nude, and La Valentina (Rogelio A. González, 1966). In 1970 she made her last film, La Generala/The general (Juan Ibáñez, 1971). The Mexican historical telenovela La Constitucion/The Constitution (Ernesto Alonso, 1971) was her last professional acting job. Later, Maria attempted to return to the cinema twice. First, in 1982, with the film Toñaa Machetes, and again in 1986 with Insolito resplandor. Neither projects crystallized, and María never reappeared in film. Her autobiography, Todas mis guerras, was published in 1993. María Félix was married four times. Her first marriage (1931–1938) was with the cosmetics sales agent Enrique Alvarez Alatorre. He is the father of her only son, actor Enrique Álvarez Félix. Enrique died in 1999 of a heart attack. Her second marriage (1945–1947) was with the famous Mexican composer Agustín Lara. María was a fan of Lara since her adolescence. Lara immortalized María in a huge number of songs, but his excessive jealousy ended their relationship in 1947. After her second divorce, Maria had romances with the Mexican aviation entrepreneur Jorge Pasquel, the Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín and the Argentine actor Carlos Thompson. In 1953, when María returned to Mexico after her stay in Europe and Argentina, she was reunited with the actor and singer Jorge Negrete, and the couple married in 1953. Unfortunately. Negrete was already ill when the marriage took place. Negrete died eleven months after at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, while María was in Europe shooting La Belle Otero. María's appearance at his funeral dressed in trousers, caused a huge scandal, which led María to take refuge in Europe. Her fourth marriage (1956–1974), was with the Romanian-born, French banker Alexander Berger. Berger died in 1974 as a result of lung cancer just months after the death of the mother of Marìa, which plunged her into a deep depression. Her last romantic relationship was the Russian-French painter Antoine Tzapoff. Until the end of her life she maintained that she wanted to return to acting, but nothing ever materialized. Maria Felix died in her sleep on 8 April 2002, the day she turned 88.

Sources: Sheila Whitaker (The Guardian), Maximiliano Maza (IMDb), Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Cover page of a film programme by Illustrierte Film-Bühne, no. 6019. Jack Palance in The Barbarians/Revak, lo schiavo di Cartagine (Rudolph Maté, 1960).

Jack Palance (1919-2006) was an American actor and singer, who portrayed some of the most intensely despised villains witnessed in Westerns and melodrama of the 1950s. In the late 1950s, he became an international star, who often played in Spaghetti Westerns and in the Nouvelle Vague classic Le Mépris (1963) with Brigitte Bardot. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning an Oscar for his grizzled, eccentric role in City Slickers (1991).

Tags:   peplum Antiquity program programme vintage brochure German Austrian Cinema Cine Cinema Italiano Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1960s Revak The Barbarians Revak, lo schiavo di Cartagine 1960 Jack Palance Illustrierte Film-Bühne

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Cover page of a film programme by Illustrierte Film-Bühne, no. 4969. Anita Ekberg and Georges Marchal in Nel segno di Roma/Sign of the Gladiator (Guido Brignone, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1959).

Handsome, manly Italian actor Massimo Girotti (1918-2003) had a career that spanned seven decades. He is best remembered for the young wanderer Gino in Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1943), the heroic Gaul in Alessandro Blasetti's Fabiola (1949), the stern lover in Michelangelo Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore (1950), the passionate patriot in Visconti's Senso (1954), the despondent father in P.P. Pasolini's Teorema (1968), and his last role of the old baker with a secret in La finestra di fronte (2003) by Ferzan Ozpetek.

Swedish film actress, party girl and sex symbol Anita Ekberg (1931-2015) was nicknamed The Iceberg. Miss Sweden 1950 was contracted by Howard Hughes, had a Hollywood career in the 1950s, but got her real breakthrough in Italy. She made film history as the sensual, voluptuous film goddess who dances in the Trevi Fountain in Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960). She was also unforgettable as a sexy billboard figure coming to life in Fellini's short film Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio/The Temptation of Doctor Antonio (1962).

Tags:   peplum Antiquity program programme vintage brochure German Austrian Cinema Cine Cinema Italiano Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana 1950s Nel segno di Roma Anita Ekberg Massimo Girotti 1959 Illustrierte Film-Bühne

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