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Vintage Italian postcard. Photo: Scalera Film. Viviane Romance in the Franco-Italian corpoduction Rosa di sangue/ Angélica (Jean Choux, 1940), based on the novel Les compagnons d'Ulysse by Pierre Benoît.

Temperamental and beautiful French star Viviane Romance (1912-1991) played dozens of flirts, femme fatales and fallen women in black & white classics of the French cinema of the 1930s and 1940s.

Vintage Italian postcard. Photo: Scalera Film. Viviane Romance in the Franco-Italian corpoduction Rosa di sangue/ Angélica (Jean Choux, 1940), based on the novel Les compagnons d'Ulysse by Pierre Benoît.

Temperamental and beautiful French star Viviane Romance (1912-1991) played dozens of flirts, femme fatales and fallen women in black & white classics of the French cinema of the 1930s and 1940s.

Vintage Italian postcard. Scalera Film. Isa Miranda in the Italian film È caduta una donna/ A Woman Has Fallen (Alfredo Guarini, 1941), based on the novel of Milly Dandolo (1936).

Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. In Hollywood she was billed as the ‘Italian Marlene Dietrich’, and played femme fatale roles. Later she became one of the most significant European film actresses during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini Firenze), no. 4246. Photo: Scalera Film.

Italian actress Doris Duranti (1917-1995) was a major star of the Italian cinema of the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the main competitor of Clara Calamai. Duranti was also the lover a notorious fascist.

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Vintage postcard. ASER (Aldo Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), No. 215, Scalera Film. Photo by Pesce. Rina Morelli in Don Giovanni (Dino Falconi, 1942), in which she played Socorrito opposite Adriano Rimoldi as the title character.

Rina Morelli, pseudonym of Elvira Morelli (Naples, 6 December 1908 - Rome, 17 July 1976), was an Italian actress and dubber, companion on stage and in life of Paolo Stoppa. She played in Luchino Visconti's films Senso (1954), Il Gattopardo (1963) and L'innocente (1976), as well as in many of his stage plays.

Coming from a well-known family of actors, including her grandfather Alamanno Morelli, and her parents Amilcare Morelli and Narcisa Brillanti, she walked the stage from an early age, making her official debut in September 1924 in Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom with Annibale Betrone's company. In 1931 she joined the company of Antonio Gandusio and Luigi Almirante, where she met the actor Gastone Ciapini; the two were married the following year, but the marriage was short-lived; for this period Morelli also used her husband's surname.

In 1933, she made her dubbing debut at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Rome, becoming the regular voice of Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Simone Simon; one of her first jobs was dubbing Jackie Cooper in the film The Champion. Over the following decades, she would work in dubbing at various companies in the capital, including C.D.C. Her ductile and expressive voice was perfectly suited to the faces of Nina Foch in The Ten Commandments, Judy Holliday (for whom she would become the official dubbing actress), Carole Lombard in To Be or Not to Be (1942), Bette Davis in What Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Gene Tierney in Laura (1944), the fairy Fauna in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and many others.

Endowed with a petite physique but an extraordinary expressive strength, Morelli first made a name for herself as a D'Annunzian actress, to become, in the 1938-39 season, a member of the Teatro Eliseo company, together with Gino Cervi, Carlo Ninchi, Paolo Stoppa and Andreina Pagnani. She lent her sensitivity to characters of fragile but at the same time resolute women, in plays such as Happy Days by Claude-André Puget, Fascination by Keith Winter and The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare. In 1945, she began a long collaboration with director Luchino Visconti who, together with Paolo Stoppa, who also became her life companion, directed her in some successful performances of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, Jean Anouilh's Antigone, Anton Čechov's Uncle Vanja, and plays by Shakespeare and Goldoni. In 1956 and 1961, she was awarded the San Genesio Prize as best theatre actress of the season: only Sarah Ferrati received this award twice. Active in the cinema as well,

Morelli lent her pained dramatic sensibility to numerous films, especially under the careful direction of Visconti, who exalted her intense interpretative temperament in his films Senso (1953), Il Gattopardo (1963) and L'innocente (1976). Memorable she was as the bitchy servant of Alida Valli in Senso, as the austere and at time hysterical princess in Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), and as the caring old mother of Giancarlo Giannini in L'innocente. Morelli started her film career with Un'avventura di Salvator Rosa, 1939) by Alessandro Blasetti, with whom she would also act in La corona di ferro (1941), Fabiola (1949), and Altri tempi (1952). During the war years she would act in several period pieces such as Fedora (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1942) staring Luisa Ferida, and Maria Malibran (Guido Brignone, 1943) starring Mario Cebotari. Also after the war she could be seen in several period dramas, first those by Blasetti, and afterward a few by Mauro Bolognini: La viaccia (1961) and Fatti di gente perbene (1974). She also played in modern settings in both comedies e.g. by Mario Mattoli, and dramas, e.g. Il Cristo proibito (1951) by Curzio Malaparte, in which she was the mother of the protagonist played by Raf Vallone, and Il bell' Antonio (Bolognini, 1960), in which she was the mother of the lead, Marcello Mastroianni.

Morelli starred in numerous EIAR and RAI radio plays from the mid-1930s to the 1970s: comedies, radio dramas and, between 1966 and 1974, she appeared in Gran varietà, where she duetted with Paolo Stoppa in Eleuterio and Sempre Tua, an ironic reinterpretation of Jerome Kilty's play Caro bugiardo (Dear Liar), which they performed on stage in 1961 and on television in 1963. In the last few years, Morelli devoted herself, sometimes alongside Paolo Stoppa, to starring in a series of dramas, such as Vita col padre e con la madre (1960), Antonio Meucci cittadino toscano contro il monopolio Bell (1970), and I Buddenbrook (1971). Her interpretation, together with Sarah Ferrati, Nora Ricci and Ave Ninchi, of Sorelle Materassi (1972), a television adaptation of Aldo Palazzeschi's eponymous novel, received great acclaim.

Rina Morelli died on 17 July 1976 at the age of 67. The cause was a heart attack.

Source: Italian Wikipedia.

Italian postcard by ASER (Aldo Scarmiglia Ed. Roma), no. 89. Photo: Pesce / Scalera Film.

Luigi Pavese (Asti, 25 October 1897 - Rome, 13 December 1969) was an Italian actor and voice actor. An actor endowed with great versatility, Luigi Pavese was among the greatest character actors of Italian cinema. During his career, which lasted over forty years, he appeared in more than 170 films. Endowed with an unmistakable vocal timbre, deep and incisive, he was also an appreciated and prolific voice actor.

Being the elder brother of Nino Pavese, he made his debut in cinema at a very young age, starring in two silent films in 1916: La peccatrice and La vampa directed by Roberto Roberti and Achille Consalvi respectively. He then had to suspend his activity in show business for almost five years as he was called up for military service, from which he was discharged only in 1920. In 1921, in addition to his acting in Emilio Ghione's film Senza pietà, he made his debut in the theatre, being part of various companies and continuing this activity even during the most dramatic days of the Second World War, such as that of the Via Rasella attack (23 March 1944), in which, while acting at the Teatro Quattro Fontane in Rome in the play Sai che ti dico?, he warned the audience of what was happening and urged them to remain calm by letting the spectators out through a back door. From the mid-1930s Pavese was quite active in Italian sound films, mostly in supporting parts, but he had the lead in Antonio Meucci (Enrico Guazzoni, 1940), on the unfortunate Italian inventor of the telephone, while he also played the famous Sandokan in Le due tigri/ The Two Tigers (Giorgio Simonelli, 1941) and its sequel I pirati della Malesia/ Pirates of Malaya (Guazzoni, 1941), after Emilio Salgari's famous novels.

In the years after World War II, Luigi Pavese was mainly active in the cinema, playing, thanks to his innate brilliant talent and authoritative manner, amusing figures of soldiers, civil servants, lawyers, notaries, doctors, commanders, accountants and betrayed husbands in brilliant comedies, especially alongside Totò, whose able sidekick he was in many films such as Fifa e arena/ Fear and Sand (1948), Totò al Giro d'Italia (1948), Totò le Mokò (1949), Totò cerca moglie (1950), Totò a colori (1952), La banda degli onesti (1956), Totò a Parigi (1958), and Totòtruffa 62 (1961). He also played in numerous comedies with Peppino De Filippo, Carlo Campanini, Carlo Dapporto, Silvana Pampanini, Aldo Fabrizi, Renato Rascel, Walter Chiari, Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi. Sometimes Pavese acted in dramatic roles, e.g. as Thenardier opposite Gino Cervi as Jean Valjean in I miserabili/ Les Misérables (Riccardo Freda, 1948). Pavese acted in film until 1968.

As a voice actor Pavese lent his voice to, among others, Anthony Quinn, Burl Ives, Frank Morgan, Fredric March and Gary Cooper and also to characters from Disney animated films, such as the Clown in Dumbo (1941), Boris in Lady and the Tramp (1955 dubbing), the dog Labrador in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Colonel Hathi in Jungle Book (1967) and Eeyore in Winny-the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). Among his Italian voice overs of characters in American films were those of God in The Ten Commandments, The Cowardly Lion / "Zeke" in The Wizard of Oz[, Sergeant McClusky in Jumping Jacks, Mr. Kruhulik in The Seven Year Itch, Stanislas "Animal" Kuzawa in Stalag 17, Nick in It's a Wonderful Life, Zero Schwiefka in The Man with the Golden Arm, Balthazar in Ben-Hur, and M in Goldfinger.

Pavese also worked in a number of RAI television dramas in the 1950s and 1960s, including: Cime tempestose/ Wuthering Heights (1956), directed by Anton Giulio Majano, Jane Eyre (1957), again directed by Majano, Il romanzo di un maestro (1959), directed by Mario Landi, La cittadella (1964), again with Majano, Il conte di Montecristo (1966), directed by Edmo Fenoglio and I ragazzi di Padre Tobia (1968), directed by Italo Alfaro. On 1 June 1968 he was injured in a car accident in Rome, on the Autostrada del Sole, while driving his car. He was hospitalised at the Policlinico with a reserved prognosis, only to be discharged later. He died the following year, on the morning of 13 December 1969, of a sudden heart attack, at the age of 72, in the house where he had been living with his brother, Nino Pavese, since the car accident. He rests at the Verano Cemetery.

Source: Italian and English Wikipedia.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), no. 209. Photo: Pesce / Scalera Film.

Elli Parvo (1914–2010) was an Italian screen actress between the mid-1930s and 1960 and known as the woman men fight over as in Desiderio (1943-45) or the femme fatale as in Il sole sorge ancora (1946). "Gorgeous, dark-haired, luscious-lipped, shapely-legged, not afraid of showing as much of her body as could be, Elli Parvo was THE femme fatale of post-war Italy." (Guy Bellinger on IMDb).

Elli Parvo, an anagram of her real name Elvira Gobbo, was born in Milan, on 17 October 1914. Her father was from Friuli, her mother from Berlin. She was educated in a Swiss school in her native town. She debuted at the age of 19 as an extra in the period piece Teresa Confalonieri (1934) by Guido Brignone. From 1937, apart from bit parts she also had major roles in Italian films, as in Lasciate ogni speranza (Gennaro Righelli, 1937) with Antonio Gandusio, Gatta ci cova (Righelli, 1937) with Angelo Musco, Mia moglie si diverte, the Italian version of the multiversion film Unsere kleine Frau (Paul Verhoeven, 1938) with Käthe von Nagy, Il marchese di Ruvolito (Raffaele Matarazzo, 1939) with Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo, and La notte delle beffe (Carlo Campogalliani, 1939) with Amedeo Nazzari and Dria Paola.

During the first war years, Parvo was most active in film, acting in about six films per year, e.g. in La donna perduta (Domenico Gambino, 1940) - in which she had the lead, opposite a range of former actors of the silent screen (Alberto Capozzi, Mary Cléo Tarlarini, Oreste Bilancia a.o.), Ridi pagliaccio (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1941) with Fosco Giacchetti and Laura Solari, L’allegro fantasma (Amleto Palermi, 1941) – in whch she had the female lead (opposite various actors from the silent screen such as Capozzi, Bilancia and Tarlarini), Beatrice Cenci (Guido Brignone, 1941) with Carola Höhn, Sette anni di felicità and its German version (Ernst Marischka, Roberto Savarese, 1942) – both shot at Cinecittà, I due Foscari (Fulchignoni, 1942), Il fanciullo del West (Giorgio Ferroni, 1942) with Macario – considered the first Italian Western parody, Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1943) with Viviance Romance, and Vittorio De SIca’s La porta del cielo (1944). Parvo often played either cheeky maids as in Sette anni di felicità ,or mundane, lush ladies of loose morals, such as Angela, the girlfriend of Francesca Cenci in Beatrice Cenci.

Started by Roberto Rossellini in 1943 as Scalo merci, but finished by Marcello Pagliero and released as Desiderio, Elli Parvo had the female lead in this tragic story about Paola, a woman who hides her former life as prostitute for Giovanni, an honest man (Carlo Ninchi) who wants to marry her. Returned to her village and family because of her sister’s wedding, he follows her, so in the end three men rival for her: her lover, her brother-in-law and an evil former lover. She cannot cope with this and kills herself. The film was quickly taken out of release and cut back by the censors, partly for having shown Parvo bare-breasted. Also released in 1946 was the classic Neorealist film Il sole sorge ancora by Aldo Vergano. Here Parvo played Matilde, a wealthy estate owner who, towards the end of the war in Italy, seduces the male lead, the ex-soldier Cesare (Vittorio Duse), who has returned to his village, finding it filled with displaced persons.

More femme fatale parts followed in the rural dramas Legge di sangue (Luigi Capuano, 1948) with Leonardo Cortese and Luigi Tosi, Vertigine d'amore (Luigi Capuano, 1949) with Charles Vanel and Folco Lulli, and Santo disonore (Guido Brignone, 1950) with men constantly fighting about her. Parvo also acted in two comedies by Luigi Zampa: È più facile che un cammello... (1950) with Jean Gabin, and L'arte di arrangiarsi (1954) with Alberto Sordi. In the mid-fifties Parvo’s career went into decline, when her femme fatale-like characters became less in demand. Her only important participation was a parody of her stereotype, alongside Totò, in Totò terre (1951), by Mario Mattoli. In 1960, after playing a role in Dangerous Mothers, Parvo abandoned her film career forever. Elli Parvo died in 2010 at the high age of 95.

Vintage Italian postcard. ASER (Aldo Scarmiglia Ed., Roma), No. 90. Scalera Film. Photo by Pesce.

Anita Farra (1905–1979) was an Italian actress and scriptwriter, who also worked in Spain.

Born in Venice in 1905, Farra began attending small theater companies in the region, her arrival at the cinema would only take place in 1936 with the film Bertoldo, Bertoldino and Cacasenno, under the direction of Giorgio Simonelli. The career of the film actress consisted of about 31 films, in the period of about 40 years, but was extremely discontinuous, Farra would never be able to get out of secondary parts and would abandon work for the big screen in 1975, continuing to work in the theater. She also did occasional performances in radio programs of the thirties and forties by EIAR and RAI. Farra often worked in Spain, also participating in the screenplay for the film Buongiorno, Madrid! (Gian Maria Cominetti, 1943), starring Maria Mercader.

In the spring of 1943, Farra went to Spain for a series of Italo-Hispanic co-productions, such as Dora, la espia (1943), staring the diva of Italian silent cinema: Francesca Bertini. Her parts became considerably bigger. Her travel and work companions were Emilio Cigoli, Felice Romano, Franco Coop, Nerio Bernardi and Paola Barbara (who was already in Madrid with her husband, the director Primo Zeglio). After finishing the commitment with the production, the group of Italian actors, considering the wartime travel conditions and the state of order in Italy, decided to remain in the Spanish capital pending the end of the war. They were contacted by a representative of the 20th Century Fox who offered them the opportunity to work on the dubbing, in Italian, of the films of the American company, to make sure that at the end of the war, the films could be inserted in the circuits of the Italian cinemas, considering the shutdown of the dubbing plants in Rome. The group of actors set to work in a studio in Madrid, where several American films are dubbed, including How Green Was My Valley, Charley's Aunt, The Mark of Zorro, Suspicion, and The Lodger. These films arrived in Italy following the American Allied troops liberating Italy, and after a while they were distributed for viewing in public cinemas. In the middle of 1945 the actors returned to Rome, where they resumed their usual work within a short time.

After the war, Farra would continue act in films but much less than before, and alternating Italian and Spanish films. She played e.g. a friend of Paola (Lucia Bosé) In Michelangelo Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore (1950). Her last part Farra had as the mother of the leading character (played by Enrico Montesano) in Amore vuol dir gelosia (Mauro Severino, 1975).

NB While Italian Wikipedia writes Farra died August 7, 1979 in Madrid, IMDB and English Wikipedia state she died August 4, 2008 (age 103), in Predappio, Italy.

Source: Italian WIkipedia, IMDB.

Italian postcard by ASER (Aldo Scarmiglia Edizioni, Roma), no. 47. Photo: Pesce / Scalera Film.

Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. In Hollywood, she was billed as the ‘Italian Marlene Dietrich’ and played femme fatale roles. Later she became one of the most significant European film actresses during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 4392. Photo: Scalera Film / Pesce. Viviane Romance in Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1944). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

On 23 April 2022, a post on Carmen will be published on EFSP!

Italian postcard. Maria Denis and Louis Jourdan in La Vie de bohème/La Bohème/Bohème (Marcel L'Herbier, 1942-1945). The film was produced by the Italian companies Scalera and Invicta Film (Scalera was also the distributor) but was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice in the Winter of 1942. The film was only released after the war, in October 1945. Set photos were by Aldo Graziati, who worked under the pseudonym of G.R. Aldo. He may have made the photo for this card. The leads of the film were the Italian actress Maria Denis as Mimi and the French actor Louis Jourdan as Rodolphe.

Maria Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of Italian cinema under Fascist rule. Very successful were her 'telefoni bianchi' films and melodramas of the 1930s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial were her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti.

Dashingly handsome French film actor Louis Jourdan (1919-2015) was known for his cultivated, lead roles in several Hollywood films. With his polished good looks he often was typecasted as the old-fashioned European lover, but in the 1980s he could broaden his range with character roles like the excentric villain opposite James Bond in Octopussy

Vintage Italian postcard. Maria Denis in La Vie de bohème / La Bohème/ Bohème (Marcel L'Herbier, 1942-45). The film was produced by the Italian companies Scalera and Invicta Film (Scalera was also the distributor), but shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice in Winter 1942. The film was only released after the war, in October 1945. Set photos were by Aldo Graziati, who worked under the pseudonym of G.R. Aldo. He may have made the photo for this card. The leads of the film were for the Italian actress Maria Denis as Mimi and the French actor Louis Jourdan as Rodolphe.

Maria Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of Italian cinema under Fascist rule. Very successful were her 'telefoni bianchi' films and melodramas of the 1930s and the earfly 1940s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial were her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti.

Italian postcard by Zimncografica, Firenze. Sent by mail in 1939. Photo: Scalera / Pesce. Leonardo Cortese in Cavalleria rusticana (Amleto Palermi, 1939).

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.

Italian postcard by ASER, no. 41. Photo: Pesce / Scalera 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.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scarmiglia Ed. Roma), no. 158. Photo: Scalera.

Handsome Italian-German actor Enrico Benfer (1905 – 1996) worked in Germany as well as in Italy and other European countries. He often co-starred with his later wife, Jenny Jugo.

Enrico or Friedrich Benfer was born as Federico Benfer in Naples, Italy in 1905. He moved to Berlin early to Berlin where he received a business education. Only 20, he made his film debut in Ich war zu Heidelberg Student/ I was a student at Heidelberg (1927, Wolfgang Neff) with Mary Peach. Next, he played a supporting part as a racing cyclist in Die Carmen von St. Pauli/The Carmen of St. Pauli (1928, Erich Waschneck). The star of the film was Jenny Jugo, who fell in love with the handsome Italian, and would finally become his wife in 1950. So soon after his debut, he played leading roles opposite Jugo under the name of Enrico Benfer. To his first films belong the Ufa productions Die Schmugglerbraut von Mallorca/The smugglers bride of Mallorca (1929, Hans Behrendt) and Die Flucht vor der Liebe/The flight from love (1929, Hans Behrendt). In the 1930’s, he played his most important roles in a series of films alongside his wife. Together, they starred in such films as Herz ist Trumpf/ Heart is king (1934, Carl Boese) with Paul Hörbiger, Pechmarie/Hard Luck Mary (1935, Erich Engel), Mädchenjahre einer Königin/ Girlhood of a Queen (1936, Erich Engel) about Queen Victoria, and Die Nacht mit dem Kaiser/The Night with the Emperor (1936, Erich Engel) about Napoleon.

Enrico Benfer worked also in international productions. In France, he was seen opposite Marie Glory in Mon béguin/My crush (1931, Hans Behrendt). In Hungary he starred opposite Franciska Gaal in the Universal production Kleine Mutti/Little Mommy (1935, Hermann Kosterlitz aka Henry Koster). And in Italy he appeared with Isa Miranda in La Signora Di Tutti/Everybody's Woman (1934, Max Ophüls). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Max Ophuls' La Signora di Tutti can be regarded today as a dress rehearsal for his 1955 masterpiece Lola Montes, though it comes nowhere near the brilliance of that later classic. Isa Miranda stars as a famous actress who, in the opening scenes, attempts suicide. A series of lavish flashbacks details the events leading up to her cataclysmic decision. In her heyday, the actress' haunting beauty was enough to drive men mad--and some to the point of killing themselves. Modern audiences may have trouble keeping a straight face during some of the more heated passages, but Ophuls’ basic premise--that fame and celebrity are ultimately hollow entities--is not to be taken lightly. The director's fabled camera techniques help smooth over some of the rougher and more ludicrous passages. La Signora di Tutti represents Max Ophuls' sole participation in the fascist-dominated Italian film industry of the 1930’s.”Back in Germany, he co-starred in Andalusische Nächte/Nights in Andalusia (1938, Herbert Maisch) with the Spanish actress Imperio Argentina.

At the end of the 1930’s, Enrico Benfer’s film career halted, and stage offers also became rare. His last German film was Das Herz der Königin/The Heart of a Queen (1940, Carl Froelich) starring Zarah Leander. When war broke out he went back to Italy where he took part in five Italian productions. Under the name Federico Benfer, he played in Mamma/Mother (1940, Guido Brignone) starring opera tenor Beniamino Gigli, Lucrezia Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (1940, Hans Hinrich) featuring Isa Pola, Turbine (1941, Camillo Mastrocinque), Confessione/Confession (1941, Flavio Calzavara) with Paola Barbara, and Oro nero/Black gold (1942, Enrico Guazzoni) starring Juan de Landa. Then Benfer ended his career as an actor. He worked as a grocery buyer in the Air Ministry and was on 24 October 1944 drafted into the army. After the war, he married Jenny Jugo in 1950. Since then he lived with his paraplegic wife on a farm in Bad Heilbrunn in Upper Bavaria. Until his death, he led his company Benfer Chimica in the Italian city of Bazzano. Friedrich Benfer died in 1996 in Milano, Italy at the age of 90.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Italian postcard by Zincografica, Firenze. Photo: Produzione Incine / Scalera Film. Doris Duranti and Claudio Gora in Resurezzione/Resurrection (Flavio Calzavara, 1944), based on Leo Tolstoy's classic novel 'Resurrection' (1899), often adapted to film.

Plot: Caterina Màslova (Duranti), a girl who works as a maid and companion for two elderly ladies falls in love with their nephew, a charming young officer, Dimitri Neklindoff (Gora). Believing herself loved back, she begins a relationship with the man who soon leaves her to return to Petersburg. The pregnant woman is thrown out and forced into prostitution to survive. She loses her child and is accused of prostitution. At the trial she meets, as a juror, her seducer who would like to save her but is unable to obtain her acquittal. She will be deported to Siberia for four years, and he follows her to atone for her guilt. Initially she will try to push him away, even trying to convince him that she loves another prisoner, but they will gradually reconcile.

Italian actress Doris Duranti (1917-1995) was a major star of the Italian cinema of the late 1930s and early 1940s, and the main competitor of Clara Calamai.

Claudio Gora, pseudonym of Emilio Giordana (1913-1998), was an Italian actor and director. Already highly active during the war years, from the late fifties he had a prolific career in Italy in both genre and 'auteur' cinema, often as judges, commissioners, and high-placed military. He acted in 164 films and TV series/plays between 1939 and 1997, while he directed 9 films between 1950 and 1972.

Italian postcard by Zincografica, Firenze. Photo: Produzione Incine / Scalera Film. Claudio Gora in Resurezzione (Flavio Calzavara, 1944), based on Leo Tolstoy's classic novel 'Resurrection' (1899), often adapted to film.

Plot: Caterina Màslova (Duranti), a girl who works as a maid and companion for two elderly ladies falls in love with their nephew, a charming young officer, Dimitri Neklindoff (Gora). Believing herself loved back, she begins a relationship with the man who soon leaves her to return to Petersburg. The pregnant woman is thrown out and forced into prostitution to survive. She loses her child and is accused of prostitution. At the trial, she meets, as a juror, her seducer who would like to save her but is unable to obtain her acquittal. She will be deported to Siberia for four years, and he follows her to atone for her guilt. Initially, she will try to push him away, even trying to convince him that she loves another prisoner, but they will gradually reconcile.

Claudio Gora, pseudonym of Emilio Giordana (1913-1998), was an Italian actor and director. Already highly active during the war years, from the late fifties he had a prolific career in Italy in both genre and 'auteur' cinema, often as judges, commissioners, and high-placed military. He acted in 164 films and TV series/plays between 1939 and 1997, while he directed 9 films between 1950 and 1972.

Gora, born in Genoa, 27 July 1913, was the son of the general of the Alpine troops Carlo Felice Giordana (1865-1916). After graduating in Law, he founded the "Teatro Sperimentale Luigi Pirandello" in Genoa. He made his film debut as film actor in 1939 with Raffaele Matarazzo's Trappola d'amore/ Love Trap. His activity continued with numerous parts as a young actor, including Torna caro ideal (1939) by Guido Brignone, Signorinette (1942) by Luigi Zampa, La storia di una capinera (1943) by Gennaro Righelli, Nessuno torna indietro/ Nobody goes back (1943, but released in 1945) by Alessandro Blasetti, and Resurrezione/ Resurrection (1944) by Flavio Calzavara. After the war, Gora obtained his first important engagements in Italian-French co-productions such as Christian-Jaque's La Chartreuse de Parme (1947) and Jean Delannoy's Marie-Antoinette reine de France (1956). In the meantime he made his debut as a film director with a demanding work, taken from the hit novel by Giuseppe Berto, Il cielo è rosso (1950). It was followed in 1953 by Febbre di vivere/ Eager to Live, a courageous investigation of the environment and customs of the new generations, based on Cronaca, a play by Leopoldo Trieste.

After a gap between 1952 and 1957, Gora had a most active film acting career from the late 1950s, doing up to 7 films a year in 1960-1961, and often playing magistrates, commissioners, and high-ranked military. In the late 1950s Gora acted in historical adventure films such as Alberto Lattuada's blockbuster Il tempesta, based on Pushkin's Captain's Daughter. and peplum films such as La Venere di Cheronea (Fernando Cerchio, Viktor Tourjansky, 1957) with Jacques Sernas and Belinda Lee. Gora also played Remo Banducci, husband of the victim, in Pietro Germi's Un maledetto imbroglio (1959), based on the famous novel by Gadda, Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana. For this film he was awarded the Silver Ribbon for supporting actor. Gora acted in Citto Maselli's I delfini, Antonio Pietrangeli's Adua e le compagne, Via Margutta by Mario Camerini, Tutti a casa by Luigi Comencini and Dino Risi's Un amore a Roma, all shot in 1960. In 1960 Gora himself directed La contessa azzurra, a film produced by the shipowner Achille Lauro. With Alberto Sordi, Gora played in Una vita difficile/ A difficult life (Dino Risi, 1961). Other important interpretations Gora had in A porte chiuse (Dino Risi, 1961), Fantasmi a Roma (1961) - one of Belinda Lee's last films before she was killed in a car crash, Il sorpasso (Risi, 1962) starring Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Il processo di Verona/The Verona Trial (1963), Il medico della mutua/ The Family Doctor (Luigi Zampa, 1968) starring Sordi, Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della repubblica/ Confessions of a Police Captain (Damiano Damiani, 1971), Gente di rispetto/ The Masters (Luigi Zampa) and La donna della domenica/ The Sunday Woman (Luigi Comencini), the latter both from 1975. Gora also played evil Dr. Mabuse in the German-Italian coproduction Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse/ I raggi di Dr Mabuse (1964), whle he was the police chief in Mario Bava's Diabolik! (1968). Parallel, Gora had also an active TV acting career, from 1960 onward. Gora's last film acting part was in one of the typical Christmas comedies, Vacanze di Natale '91 (Enrico Oldoini, 1991) with Christian De Sica, Ornella Muti, Alberto Sordi etc. His last TV part was in La piovra 8 - Lo scandalo (1997). Claudio Gora died one year after, on March 13, 1998 (age 84) in Rocca Priora, Lazio, Italy. He acted in 164 films and TV series/plays between 1939 and 1997, while he directed 9 films between 1950 and 1972.

Gora was the husband of the actress Marina Berti (1924-2002), whom he met on the set of Storia di una capinera. Gora had five children, all involved in the entertainment world: Andrea, Marina, Carlo, Luca and Cristina Giordana. Since 2005, the "Claudio Gora Award", an annual competition dedicated to experimental theater, has been held at the Laboratorium Teatro di Roma.

Sources: IMDB, Italian and English WIkipedia.