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- Actor
- Director
Now completely forgotten, the name of Gerald Ames had a very special feel back in the silent era. The man who bore this name was indeed a heart breaker. Six feet tall, burly, athletic, mustached, dark-eyed and dark-haired, Ames had all it took to get top billing and he did grace about seventy films (many of which directed by pioneers George Loane Tucker and Cecil M. Hepworth) with his manly presence. He very successfully portrayed three archetypal fiction characters, Rupert Von Hetzau, Arsène Lupin and Raffles. And he most often found himself in the shoes of figures of imposing bearing such as aristocrats (knights, counts, marquises, princes...), officers (lieutenants, captains...), judges, ambassadors, the like... Directors also explored the darker side of his personality by making him a spy or an enemy officer. Debuting on the boards as of 1905 and on the big screen in 1914, Gerald was one of the few actors to manage two careers at once. For not content to be a thespian he was also a fencing champion and even represented Britain in the Stockholm Games of 1912. Born in Blackheath in 1881, educated at Freiburg University in Germany, married to actress Mary Dibley, Percy Gerald Ames died too soon of a heart attack after falling down the steps at a London Underground station in 1933. He was only 51.- Although somewhat forgotten these days, Max Adalbert was a great name of the German theater at he beginning of the twentieth century. Born Max Kampf in Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland) Max Adalbert worked in Lübeck, St. Gallen (Switzerland), Vienna and Berlin (Kleines Theater, Reinhardt-Bühnen). During the silent period he appeared in two masterpieces by Fritz Lang 'Der müde Tod' and 'Dr. Mabuse der Spieler'. After a few years solely devoted to the boards Adalbert successfully returned to the cinema. He was very good in 'Mein Leopold' but it is 'Der Hauptmann von Köpenick' that earned him most acclaim. A heart attack brutally broke this virtuous circle.
- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
This elegant actor of the golden age of German cinema appeared in several masterpieces, before the cameras of such inspired geniuses as Lang, Lubitsch and Murnau. Vocation had come rather late in his life, though. Abel was indeed already 33 when he made his first film. Beforehand, he had been a forester, a gardener and a shopkeeper. But one day, while watching a film with Asta Nielsen, he was struck by revelation. He decided at once to become an actor and with the help of Nielsen in person he started a fruitful screen career. He also wrote and directed a few films. He died too soon aged only 57, but having honored the German screen with his noble, dignified figure in more than a hundred pictures.- Producer
- Writer
- Production Manager
Born in Brazil, son of a Portuguese father and Brazilian mother. After having solved subsequent problems of his father's death, owner of an important industrial business, the Casting Alegria & C., in Rio de Janeiro, he went to Portugal in 1907. Henrique Alegria fixed residence in Porto (Portugal), finding here the interest for the cinematographic exhibition business, building the Olympia Cinema, inaugurated on 18 May of 1912. In contribution with Alfredo Nunes de Matos, he took the position of art director of the Invicta Film [pt], functions that corresponded to production today, beyond maintenance responsibility in several aspects of the studio.
Henrique Alegria left Invicta in 1922, sold the Olympia Cinema and moved to Lisbon where, along with several associates, he founded Patria Film, a new firm with a great ambition but which finally had only a two year existence. Following this disappointing experience, Alegria returned to Porto, where he resumed business, but never again in the movies. He first devoted himself to fashion and then to insurance. Too bad he stopped producing given whereas he had been one of the most important pioneers of Portuguese cinema, but once bitten, twice shy, as they say! Henrique Alegria died prematurely at age 58.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The muscular, buoyant Luciano Albertini had first been a circus artist (he had created a famous number on the flying trapeze featuring eight persons) before turning to the movies as an actor, producer and director, first in Italy (where strongmen like him were then in favor), then in Germany (where his Latin appeal made German ladies swoon). He also was popular in both the capitalistic USA (where he was the hero of a serial) and in the communist USSR (appearing in Aleksandr Dovzhenko's Arsenal (1929)). Unfortunately for him, the style of films he made became outdated when sound came and, after a last film in Germany in 1932, he disappeared from the screens.- Slight, skinny, sweet-faced, with light blue eyes and wavy blond hair, young Boris Alekin fled the October Revolution and settled down in Germany. The young Russian who could speak four languages (Russian, German, English and French) soon became an actor in his host country, mainly in the theater (The Volksbühne in Berlin, the Rose-Theater in Berlin and even on Broadway for a few months in early 1935) but also before the cameras, although he was not given very interesting parts to play. He can be seen in minor roles (a student,a waiter, a bellboy, a small-time crook, a politician, a musician, a low-ranking officer) in thirteen movies, a few of which are above average such as La Habanera (1937) and To New Shores (1937) (both directed by Douglas Sirk), Trenck, der Pandur (1940), a fine Hans Albers vehicle and Friedemann Bach (1941), 'Traugott Mûller''s excellent account of the life of Johann Sebastian Bach's wayward son. In 1941, the still young actor was mobilized and sent to the Eastern Front. The irony of fate had it that Alekin who had run away from his country came back there only to die there in a military hospital. This was March 1942. Boris Alekin was not yet thirty-seven. Another life and another talent shattered by war.
- First a cabaret artist in his native country (Holland), Frederick Vogeding made a few silent films in Germany first, then back in Holland before moving to the USA in 1920. In the States he made few films during the silent era but was active in the theater, including on Broadway. His real breakthrough in Hollywood was "Below the Sea" (1933), in which he impressed the viewers in the shoes of a somber U-boat captain. From then on, he got regular work, most of the time as a heavy and more precisely in the last part of his career, as a Gestapo agent or the Nazi spy in office. He died of a stroke aged only 55 and is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles.
- One of the best character actors of the nineteen thirties and early forties, Raymond Aimos (most often simply credited as Aimos) was the quintessential 'titi parisien' (Parisian kid). The numerous characters Aimos embodied (he appeared in at least 105 films) generally corresponded with the person he was in real life: of proletarian origin, lanky, cheeky but with a heart of gold. Born in 1891 in the North of France, he was the son of a clockmaker-jeweler and was expected to follow in his father's footsteps but young Raymond was uncontrollably attracted to show business. He managed to become an operatic singer under the pseudonym of Aimos. He also appeared in a few silent films as of 1912 but his lucky strike was the coming of sound. His physical appearance, his popular roots and mostly his gift of gab were in perfect harmony with the cinema of that time. Aimos was wonderful in masterpieces by René Clair ('Sous les toits de Paris', '14 juillet' Raymond Bernard)' ('Les croix de bois', 'Amants et voleurs'), Julien Duvivier ('Le Paquebot Tenacity', 'La bandera', 'La belle équipe', 'L'homme du jour'), Sacha Guitry ('Ils étaient neuf célibataires'), Marcel Carné ('Quai des brumes') and Jean Grémillon (Lumière d'été). But even when he worked for less distinctive directors his presence was an asset for the film. His most memorable roles are Mulot, the legionary friend of Jean Gabin in 'La Bandera', 'Tintin', one of the five friends who build a riverside café and 'Quart-Vittel', the wreck of 'Quai des brumes'. As courageous in life as he had been in 'La Bandera', Aimos decided to take part in the uprising against the Nazis (which would lead to the Liberation of Paris). He was unfortunately hit by a stray bullet and died a few hours later at the premature age of 55.
- Writer
- Producer
- Editor
Virginia Folque de Castro e Almeida Pimentel Sequeira e Abreu (her full name) was a a rich cosmopolitan educated lady who played a key role in the propagation of Portuguese literature and art abroad, particularly in Paris where she lived for years as of 1918, notably by translating into French works by [error], Luís Vaz de Camões and Garcia de Resende Born into an aristocratic family of Lisbon in 1874, Virginia de Castro Almeida soon showed a special liking for the arts and literature in general. Her curious mind led her to write children's books. Always a lover of modernity, she even attempted the adventure of cinema; in 1922, she founded Fortuna Films in Lisbon but produced only two films, A Sereia de Pedra (1923) and Os Olhos da Alma (1923) as success did not come, making the experience short-lived. Virginia returned to Paris for a time, pursuing her literary mission. She died in Lisbon two decades later.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
The prototype of the elegant, distinguished pleasure-seeker, very high in the approval of the German public of his time, Georg Alexander repeated this type of role over and over again until his untimely death at the age of 57. As comfortable in the tuxedo of the socialite as in the uniform of an army officer, he was seen in no fewer than 169 movies, very few of which are memorable though. Werner Louis Georg Lüdeckens, born in 1888, in Hanover, debuted on the boards in Halberstadt, before appearing in varied theaters of Hamburg and, from 1914, in Berlin. Shortly after, he heeded the call of cinema, playing his first role for the big screen in as early as 1915. He even turned into a director, writer and producer, founding his own production company with his first wife, Norwegian star Aud Egede Nissen. Among his most successful roles of this early stage of his film activities was that of Detective Bobby Dodd alongside Harry Liedtke in the silent serial Der Mann ohne Namen - 1. Der Millionendieb (1921). Sound did not hamper Georg Alexander's career, quite the contrary. He met with considerable commercial success but, when it comes to posterity, alas, most of the forgettable comedies he made are... forgotten! A few titles stand out though and are still pleasant to watch today. They include Herbert Selpin's An Ideal Spouse (1935) Hans Steinhoff' The Making of a King (1935), Carl Froelich's Magda (1938)and Josef von Báky's Der Kleinstadtpoet (1940). All this screen hyperactivity did not hinder Georg Alexander from going on performing in the theater. Nor from being an accomplished racing driver horseman. Georg Alexander who had re-married in 1928 with talent agent Ilse Brach' died in Berlin in October 1945.- A great name of the Portuguese theatre, Adelina Abranches was paid a national homage at the Teatro São Luiz as of 1928, and in the presence of General Carmona, the President of the Republic himself. And yet there had been nothing to suggest that Margarida Adelina, born into very poor Lisbon family in 1866, would become such an admired star of the stage. The fact is that, like at the end of a Dickens novel, fate, through a quirk of which it holds the secret, proved favorable to her despite a very problematic beginning in life. Indeed misery had struck after her father had left the family home, forcing his wife, little Adelina and her eight brothers and sisters to work in order to bring back home what little money they could. But the silver lining was that to get a few reis, five-year-old Adelina, still unable to read and write, was propelled on to a stage. Of course she was only an extra in 'Os Meninos Grandes' but she enjoyed the experience and soon expressed the wish to renew it, which she would actually go on doing for... seventy-odd years! She was still only eleven when she created a sensation with her interpretation of a transvestite prince in 'Leonor de Bragança'. After this, she never stopped working, until her death in 1945 at age 79, in Portugal and in Brazil, in classic, popular or avant-garde works. She even founded her own company in the 1910s. As for her contribution to the silver screen it unfortunately remains negligible, the great lady of the Portuguese boards having appeared only in secondary roles and in no more than three pictures, 'Maria do Mar (1930)', 'Lisboa (1930)' and 'A Rosa do Adro (1938)'. But theatre was her vocation, not cinema.
- One of the Portuguese theatre's most distinctive comedians, Silvestre Alegrim, born in 1881, performed in plays, operettas and revues, from the age of ten (when he became a child actor with the Chavas Companhia Infantil) to his death in 1946 (after a last triumph in "Charley's Aunt"). His contribution to the cinema of his country is more modest: mainly secondary roles in eleven films (a domestic in A Canção de Lisboa (1933); a butler in A Rosa do Adro (1938); the night watchman in A Menina da Rádio (1944)... ). Nothing memorable, with one exception, A Severa (1931), the first sound film made in Portugal, in which he played the cheerful Timpanas. The song he sings and whistles, "A Fado do Timpanas", is a joy to listen to and to watch, all the more as the sequence is filmed with exceptional skill for its time by José Leitão de Barros.
- The youngest of no less than sixteen children, Gabriel Gabrio was born in Reims in 1887. His father worked for the Pommeray Champagne cellars but his son was soon more attracted to the theater than to the bubbles of the famous French sparkling white wine. Puppet theater was his first passion. He was only seven. Later on, after being an apprentice stained glass window painter, he made his first appearance at the Casino of his home town. He also played for five years at the Kursaal. This fledgling career was only half interrupted by World War I since soldier Gabrio played for the troops as soon as it was possible. And he did it for the whole of the four years of the conflict! He resumed civilian work immediately after the end of hostilities, but in Paris this time. He trod the boards of such theaters as the Théâtre des Ambassadeurs, Gaîté Rochechouart, Comédie Montaigne, Gymnase, Odéon, Marigny ... in plays by Shaw, Shakespeare, Bernstein and de la Fouchardière among others. In 1924, he was given the opportunity to shine on the big screen where his second movie 'Les Misérables' made him a star as Javert, the resentful policeman who relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean. From 1928, and for several years, his career became international: he starred in German, English and Spanish films. Unfortunately most of the movies he made in twenty years' time were just commercial. Nevertheless some of the roles this stout burly actor with a boxer's face played besides hosts of gangsters and other brutes, are memorable, mainly the tough characters he embodied in such classics as Raymond Bernard's 'Les Croix de Bois' (as the grumpy soldier), Gance's 'Lucrèce Borgia' (as the redoubtable Cesare Borgia), Duvivier's 'Pépé le Moko' (as Carlos) or Carné's 'Les Visiteurs du Soir' (as the executioner). He was at his best in his only foray into the universe of Marcel Pagnol (and Jean Giono for that matter) as Panturle, the last inhabitant of Aubignane who manages to revive his dying village. His poor health caused him to interrupt his activities prematurely and he retired into the village of Berchères-sur-Vesgre, in the West of France, where a street has been named after him. He died in 1946 aged only 59. Gabriel Gabrio is unjustly forgotten and his 'hefty' contribution to the French cinema should be re-appraised.
- Actor
- Music Department
Estevão Amarante, a Portuguese actor and singer, was a regular idol in his country for over two decades. Born in Lisbon on January 9, 1889 (and not 1894 as most biographies erroneously claim), his future was not all mapped out. Born into a very poor family, he lost his father while he was still very young. But the boy had an asset, a good voice, and he got noticed for that. Which resulted in his being hired as of 1900 (he was eleven) for "A Viagem de Suzette", a light opera by Léon Vasser. One year later, Estavão joined "O Teatro do Infante", a children's theater company. He concomitantly appeared in works for adults, spoken dramas, revues or operettas (like "A Casta Susana" in 1909). His growing good looks and growing talent gained him growing success, particularly from 1910 to the early 1930s, where he shone in many a revue and an operetta, singing tremendously successful fados. He had become the actor-singer of his generation. But after 1932, his star as a singer paled and he turned to spoken theater, working with great regularity. He also appeared before the cameras but Portuguese directors and producers failed to give him worthwhile parts. His eight roles on the big screen are a disappointment compared with his glorious stage career. Estevão Amarante died in Porto on December 12, 1951 exactly one year after celebrating the 50th anniversary of his debut- English actor Leslie Banks' film career would be negligible compared to his prestigious theatrical one if it were not for four exceptions. Hitchcock, for one, gave him the occasion to shine in two of his films, in a sympathetic role in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934) and in an outright unsympathetic one in "Jamaica Inn" (1938) - a telltale illustration, by the way, of the extent of his talent. The actor is also remembered for "Henry V" (1944), Laurence Olivier's masterful adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. It is fun to hear Banks roll his r's (hey! The year is 1600 after all!) while he introduces and comments the play to the audience of the Globe Theatre. But oddly enough, the thespian never made a bigger impression than in his first screen appearance, way back in 1932. Who indeed has forgotten the ruthless, ferocious, evil Count Zaroff, specializing in human game hunting, from Cooper and Schoedsack's horror classic "The Most Dangerous Game"? Banks' other movies, consisting mostly of B movies and World War II propaganda fare, did not leave a comparable impact. Maybe because Leslie Banks, always more interested in the theatre of which he was a big name, was not demanding enough in the choice of his films. On the boards, that is where he got great parts in great plays: Captain Hook in "Peter Pan", Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew", Mr. Chipping in "Goodbye Mr. Chips", James Jarvis in the Kurt Weill musical "Lost in the Stars", and many many others. Born in 1890 in West Derby near Liverpool, he studied at Keble College, Oxford. First wanting to be a parson, he became an actor instead, making his debut in 1911. His reputation rapidly rose, and Banks never stopped working until his untimely death, not only in England but also in the USA where he toured as early as 1912. With only one interruption, though a big one, due to World War I. Banks, who served with the Essex Regiment then, was wounded in the face, one side remaining permanently paralyzed. Which did not prevent him from quickly resuming his activities, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre first, then in London, New York and Hollywood. Unfortunately, if the delightfully threatening figure of Zaroff will rest forever in our minds, Leslie Banks physically disappeared in 1952, only aged 61, hit by a sudden stroke. He has been missed since.
- Born in Rome in 1883, Romano Calò was one of the few Italian stage actors who turned to the cinema in its silent period. Between 1911 and 1943, he played in about thirty movies, mainly in supporting roles. The same year, after the fall of Badaglio, he was stranded in Ticino, where he was selected by Leopold Lindtberg for the part of the priest in his classic war film The Last Chance (1945). But his greatest role was also to be the last on the big screen. Romano Calò remained active in his adopted country though, working for the radio studio of Lugano, where he had settled down and where he died in 1952.
- André Lefaur is undeniably part of the pantheon of French actors. One of those "eccentrics of the French Cinema" as Raymond Chirat and Olivier Barrot quite rightly dubbed them. One of these wonderful personalities of the stage and screen who alongside Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Saturnin Fabre, Raimu and several others have such a strong personality, such a personal style that they are absolutely inimitable. Just like the actors mentioned above, André Lefaur was first and foremost André Lefaur. Which does not mean that he did not make the character he played believable. Quite the contrary. But like Simon, Brasseur or Raimu, he made them bigger than life and- accordingly - unforgettable. It is to be noted that on the big screen was most of the time a nobleman (at lest twenty times: six times a marquis, four times a baron) and/or a figure of authority (four times a general, but also a colonel, a judge or a president). However, instead of causing the viewer to admire these figures of the elite, Lefaur invariably deflated the ego of those pompous empty windbags. Yes, André Lefaur was nearly always cast as a v.i.p. but this person was invariably starchy, tyrannical ('La Fleur d'Oranger'), weak, pretentious, ridiculous ('La Dixième Symphonie') or cuckolded ('L'Habit Vert'). On the other hand, he never made puppets of his characters. There was always humanity within them and the viewer tended to end up feeling sorry for them rather than despise them. Marc Allégret allowed Lefaur to display all his humanity in his final role, that of a loving father in 'Les Petites du Quai aux Fleurs'), which was a nice farewell present to a man who will always be remembered for his ability to deliver witty lines by Louis Verneuil, Mirande, Deval, Flers and Caillavet like nobody else.
- Treading the boards since 1920, Marcel Herrand lent his natural elegance and his exceptional presence to plays by major playwrights such as Jules Romains, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Schnitzler, John Ford or Albert Camus, under the direction of such geniuses as Jacques Copeau, Charles Dullin, or Georges Pitoëff. Not content to act, he also staged plays by 'Federico Garcia Lorca', Henrik Ibsen, Julien Gracq and many others, for which he was rightly acclaimed. As far as movies are concerned, Marcel Herrand made only twenty-six films (and only two during the nineteen thirties) but he was chosen by the best director of his time, Marcel Carné, for whom he appeared in two masterpieces, Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) and the immortal Children of Paradise (1945), in which he was particularly impressive as Lacenaire, the dandy killer in revolt against the society in the time of King Louis-Philippe. And even if all the directors he worked with were not on par with Carné, Marcel Herrand mainly played in good quality films, most often in the role of the villain, but not any villain, the high-class scene-stealing villain, with exquisite manners but all the more dangerous for that. He is also memorable as the faithless policeman Corentin, who swears to ruin the Marquis de Montauran (Jean Marais), the scheming Don Salluste, who swears to ruin Ruy Blas (Jean Marais again!) and the Queen of Spain in Ruy Blas (1948) and the infamous killer Larsan in Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1949), in one of his rare leading roles. He was also an amusing King Louis XV in a merry adventure flick that has wonderfully stood the test of time, Fanfan la Tulipe (1952).
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Lucien Muratore was a French tenor who was an operatic star for thirty years at the beginning of the twentieth century. He performed in Paris, Boston, Chicago and Buenos Aires, where he took part in works by Massenet, Fauré and Saint-Saëns. Muratore also appeared on several occasions on movie screens, notably with his second wife, Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri. In his first film, produced in the USA, he is The Chevalier Des Grieux.- Between 1926 and 1947, Harry A. Bailey's plumpness earned this fine character actor dozens of bit parts as the fat man in office. Often a politician - most often a senator (it looks as though they ate too much at the time!) he was also regularly seen in court trial scenes (whether as a lawyer, a court clerk or a juror). He also embodied with ease your good-humored bald-headed neighbor or the the conductor of the train you travel in. Incidentally, Harry Bailey appeared in three masterpieces, Frank Capra's 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' (as a... senator it goes without saying!) and Orson Welles's 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Magnificent Ambersons'. But look closely if you do not mean to miss him!
- If Dorothy Vaughan appeared in 143 movies or episodes of TV series, it was certainly not by accident. Actually the reason why this lively stout lady was in such demand is that she was the spitting image of the woman next door, of the hospital nurse who took care of your son after he broke his arm falling off his bike, of the midwife who helped your wife to give birth to that wonderful baby boy ... whose girlfriend you dislike so much now that he is almost grown up. Dorothy Vaughan was everybody's ma, John Doe's Granny, your boss's charwoman. There can be no other reasons why she was in so many films in so little time. Of course her roles were often brief, just like when you come across an ordinary person you barely notice in everyday life. But she could occasionally get more meaty roles, like in "Trail to San Antone" (1947) in which she portrayed the bossy 'Commodore' with obvious relish.
- Born in 1927, Roland Alexandre started his adult (and professional) life under favorable auspices. Young (he was only 22 when he joined the prestigious Comédie-Française), handsome (L'Aurore, a French newspaper described him as having a wonderful physical appearance and a fantastic charm), gifted (the same paper praised his clear singular voice and his presence) and in love with Juliette Greco, the famous singer, he had everything. But the fairy tale suddenly turned sour when the "cherished child of the gods" took his own life at the age of 28. A sad (and premature) ending for a young man who could have become a new Gérard Philipe. However, for all the brevity of his career, Roland Alexandre had had time to star in nearly twenty plays signed André Gide, William Shakespeare, Jean Racine, Victor Hugo, Molière and Alfred de Musset as well as to appear in ten movies in France and abroad. His best remembered roles in the movies were that of Jacques Morhange, a young intern, godson of a famous surgeon (Pierre Fresnay) in Yves Ciampi's Perfectionist (1951) and Armand Duval in Raymond Bernard's version of A Lady with Camelias (1953). But his real shining hours were on the boards when he performed such difficult (and rewarding) roles as Lafcadio in "Les caves du Vatican", Britannicus in 'Racine's play of the same name, Perdican in "On ne badine pas avec l'amour" and Clitandre in "Les femmes savantes". Roland Alexandre, a man who had everything but who said no to life. How sad.
- Eddie Acuff is one of those wonderful supporting actors who peopled the fascinating world of Hollywood's A, B or Z movies. In a career spanning eighteen years he appeared in an amazing almost 300 movies and one TV episode! His appearances could be invisible (when deleted), hardly visible (he portrayed an endless series of cabbies, reporters, cameramen, cowboys, hamburger vendors, orderlies, ticket agents, militiamen, bus drivers, the lot...), short but recurring (he was the accident-prone mailman in the 'Blondie' series after Irving Bacon gave up the part) or more fleshed out, notably as the sidekick in various serials. Anyway, he nearly always played - in a very talented way - the wise-cracking guy who "knows better". Born on June 3rd 1903, Edward Acuff was drawn to acting under the influence of his maternal uncle, who had been a performer on showboats along the Mississippi. Before going to Hollywood, Eddie Acuff started a theater career, and even played on Broadway (in minor roles of course) in plays such as 'The Dark Hour', 'Heat Lightning' or 'Yellow Jack'. From 1934 to 1951 (five years before his untimely death following a sudden heart attack), Eddie Acuff worked and worked and worked. Only a few of his films are classics (The Petrified Forest (1936), They Drive by Night (1940), High Sierra (1940), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Johnny Allegro (1949))...So what? Seeing but a glimpse of Acuff is always a dose of pleasure guaranteed. Eddie Acuff is buried at the North Hollywood Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park.
- Producer
- Writer
- Production Manager
A well-read man, which is how some define Stefan Markus. Not wrong but a bit thin for a man of so many talents. Born in Zurich in 1884, young Stefan soon proved a fertile mind as well as a consummate reader. It comes as no surprise to find him studying literature... and history... and political economy. In 1909, with his Ph. D. in his pocket, he left Berlin where he had been a student and came back to Switzerland. That same year, he founded the Hertenstein Open Air Theater in Weggis and started writing plays and novels. In addition to these activities, he wrote articles for Swiss, German and Austrian newspapers. In the early 1920s, Markus tried his luck in yet another venture, namely film production. After putting two movies together in his native country, he moved to Paris where for five years running he was the driving force behind a series of silent movies, the best being Sables (1928). Back in Zurich in 1933, Stefan Markus launched an ambitious film company, Mentor Film, designed to produce film adaptations of major works of Swiss literature. Only one project came about though, due to the fact that The Kidnapping (1934) was a box office flop. Not because it was a bad movie, far from that: Dimitri Kirsanoff, who had previously directed 'Sables' for Markus, had actually graced his adaptation of Ramuz' novel with a splendid cinematography and allowed Arthur Honegger and Arthur Hoérée to provide a magnificent film score and a revolutionary sound design, but it may be the film's very artistry that kept viewers away. Despite such a setback, Markus' enterprising spirit remained uncurbed: in 1936, he was back in Paris, producing Jeunes filles de Paris (1936), the first feature film in color ever made in France. At the outbreak of World War II, Markus came back one more time to Switzerland where, until he retired in 1948, he wrote and/or produced several additional films. Undeniably an important figure of Swiss culture, Stefan Markus died in 1957 after a full and productive life.- It was not obvious from the start that Pierre Alcover, a hefty John Blunt, would become a stage and movie actor. In fact he seems to be one of his kind for they are few those who made the transition from warehouseman at Les Halles (Paris' traditional central market) to winner of a first prize at the Conservatoire de Paris. But Alcover was both able to carry a 200 kilo load on his broad back as to tell the lines of famous playwrights on the boards of l'Odéon, the prestigious theater where he debuted in 1916. On the silver screen, his imposing stature and his gruff tone predisposed him to violent roles, on either side of the law. He was either a bandit (L'affaire du courrier de Lyon (1937), Life Dances On (1937) Louis Jouvet 's accomplices) or a cop (the inefficient policeman in Marcel Carné's comedy Drôle de drame (1937), also with Jouvet). A bad boy (in Fritz Lang's only French film Liliom (1934)), a head spy (in Jacques Robert's La chèvre aux pieds d'or (1925), En plongée (1926), a convict (with a heart) in the touching La petite Lise (1930) directed by Jean Grémillon, he was the head warden in Criminel (1933), the French version of The Criminal Code (1930), the chief of the Czar's police in Pierre Billon's Au service du tsar (1936) and even Sanson the executioner in Sous la terreur (1935)! Anyway, whether a lawbreaker or a law enforcer, Pierre Alcover brought the same conviction (no pun intended) to the role he was given to play. One of the great character actors of the 1920s and 1930s.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thin and tart-tongued, Baltimore-born theater actress Hilda Vaughn, had a decade of intense activity at the beginning of the sound period, mainly at MGM. Although she always played a pleb (a maid, a charwoman, a governess, a saleswoman, a slavey, ...) and never a patrician, the characters she embodied did not lack ... character! Which is best exemplified by her best part, Tina, Jean Harlow's blackmailing domestic in George Cukor's "Dinner at Eight" (1933). After 1940, Hilda Vaughn returned to the theatre. She was blacklisted by McCarthy during the Witch Hunt.- Very active in the theater (he performed on Broadway from 1917 to 1957), Harold Vermilyea occasionally worked in television and in the movies, where after a false start in the nineteen tens, he landed a few interesting parts in a series of post-Second-World-War film-noirs for Paramount, RKO and 20th Century-Fox, such as "The Big Clock" or "Sorry, Wrong Number".
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Forgotten today, Marcella Albani was an idol of the European cinema in the final years of the 1920s, making dozens of films in five different countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Czechoslovakia). After sound came, her popularity declined and she turned to writing. One of her novels "La Città dell'amore" was even adapted for the big screen by Mario Franchini, her husband. She went on acting until 1936. After a final appearance in Luis Trenker Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (1936), she retired from acting and led a peaceful life at the Ligurian Coast. Born in 1899, Marcella Albani had been discovered twenty years afterward by writer-director Guido Parish with whom she formed a very successful team. The couple made nearly all their respective films together (mainly tearjerkers and adventure yarns) until 1924 when they parted company. Their first movies were made in Italy until Parish decided to go to Germany. Marcella followed her mentor - who had changed his name to Guido Schamberg - there, and she met with instant success. Very exotic as the elegant Latin lady against a German backdrop, she enraptured German males in flicks such as Frauenschicksal (1923), Das Spiel der Liebe (1924) or Die Flucht in den Zirkus (1926). When she became freelance, she was occasionally chosen by important directors like Joe May, Friedrich Zelnik' or William Dieterle. One thing leading to another Marcella Albani made no fewer than fifty-odd films in only seventeen years. She was not even sixty when, having fallen into oblivion, she died of a brain tumor. Will she be rediscovered some day?- Actor
- Soundtrack
After a very promising debut in René Clair's classic early talkie 'A nous la liberté' in 1931, co-starring with Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand seemed bound for a glorious career.He had indeed excelled as one of the two fugitives symbolizing the spirit of liberty within an oppressive society. However - and against all expectations - he never again found a role that lived up to this wonderful first role. As a matter of fact, Henri Marchand did only thirty-five more films in three decades, mostly in bit parts, most of the time uncredited. To make matters worse, his appearances were scant in the late thirties and the late forties. He was even downright absent from the screens between 1939 and 1946. Even while he was rather active in the early thirties, he was in six shorts which left little or no imprint on movie history. Why on earth didn't his career bloom? No one could say. And this is all the stranger as this comic actor was among the best in his league. He sometimes escaped this curse though and could occasionally shine in more fleshed-out than usual roles such as those of Passepoil, the funny sidekick in René Sti's 'Le Bossu' (1934) or of Germain in Christian-Jaque's 'Monsieur Personne' (1936). The fifties were a little less hard on him, as he was cast in several good films, oddly enough very often having him wear a cassock (notably in René Clair's brilliant 'Les belles de nuit' in 1952). However, the French cinema would have been more inspired to let such a talented thespian express his full potential.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jean-Benoît Lévy was not just another film director. He directed a series of good quality feature films, whether silent or talking ("Ames d'enfant" [1927], "La maternelle" [1934], "La mort du cygne" [1937] ...), and he was also passionate about pedagogy, making over 300 highly interesting educational shorts dealing mainly with social, public health subjects, dance and art. A film theoretician, he wrote books ("Le cinéma d'enseignement et d'éducation" [1929], "L'instruction visuelle aux Etats-Unis" [1936], "Les grandes missions du cinéma" [1945]) and taught cinema, particularly at New York's Ecole Libre at the New School from 1941 to 1946. After being the honorary Director of Filmaking at the UNESCO (1946-1949), he resumed his career, making a series of new shorts. His final move was to found the International Film Televisual and Audiovisual Council. When he died at seventy, the indefatigable Benoît-Lévy remained relatively unknown, and is practically forgotten today.- Mustachioed, serious-countenanced, bald with a remaining crown of hair, with an imposing round figure, André Alerme became for two decades the quintessential dignitary of French cinema. Indeed, between 1930 and 1950, the popular character actor divided his performances between the Army, the Church and the Nobility. In the seventy-odd films he was in, he was in turns, captain (once in the army, the other time in the navy), the commander of a dragoon company, a colonel ; a baron (twice), a viscount, a count, a marquis, the King's tax collector and even, in the forgettable Aloha, le chant des îles (1937) , a Scottish lord (not his best role!) ; a priest, and even Saint Peter! He could also easily portray officials or people with an influential role in society : a doctor (twice), a politician, managers of various kinds, industrialists (he was already one in his first and only silent Amour et carburateur (1925), mayors, a financier, a couturier... His roundness could have suggested gentleness, but it is rather Monsieur Prudhomme, Henry Monnier's famous caricature character, that producers saw in him, the prototype of the plump, conformist, sententious, selfish bourgeois. For most of the characters played by Alerme are either unpleasant or ridiculous or both. The role epitomizing this type of character was the unforgettable pompous but cowardly mayor of a Flemish city in Jacques Feyder's classic Carnival in Flanders (1935). Alerme, although nearly always very good, has never been better than in this unparalleled masterpiece.
André Alerme had been born in Dieppe in 1877 and started studying medicine and sculpture, but irresistibly attracted by theater, he soon appeared on the Paris theater scene. It did not take long before he met with success in plays by Henri Bernstein, Alfred Savoir, 'Edouard Bourdet', Jean Anouilh, Marcel Achard and many others. His passage from the boards to the studio spotlights was marked by the role of Georges Samoy he played in Sacha Guitry's Le blanc et le noir (1931) and reprised in Robert Florey's film version. Combining stage and cinema work in the early thirties, André Alerme tended to privilege the seventh art after 1936. Most of the films he participated in were just commercial but a few remain, signed by Jacques Feyder, Julien Duvivier, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Abel Gance, Claude Autant-Lara, Edmond T. Gréville. A great actor, Alerme will forever remain Joseph Prudhomme, complete with pomp and wicked foolishness. - Production Designer
- Art Director
- Director
Vladimir Yegorov is a renowned production designer who worked for over four decades for the Russian turned Soviet cinema. Born of a peasant family and trained at a school of commercial art, he started by painting murals and frescoes. He later became a designer at the famous Moscow Art Theater led by Stanislawsky. With him, he explored the new ideas which would revolutionize the theatre, the settings becoming an integral part of a production. In 1915, Yegorov turned to cinema, a new medium to which he applied the results of his own research work. That marked the beginning of a long and fruitful career, during which he designed about fifty movies, some having acquired the status of classic, in a variety of styles. They could be stories of the Revolution (We Are from Kronstadt (1936)), war films (Admiral Nakhimov (1947)), literary adaptations (Dubrovsky (1936)), etc. but they all have a common denominator, Yegorov's intimate knowledge of Russian people and their way of life. In 1944 Vladimir Yegorov was given the title of People's Artist. (Abridged from "Scenic Design in the Soviet Cinema", an article by Catherine de la Roche published in The Penguin Film Review # 3, London, August 1947)- A successful theater actor, Hermann Gallinger played major roles in masterpieces by Shakespeare (Don Juan in « Much Ado About Nothing », the lead character in « Julius Caesar », Shylock in « The Merchant of Venice »), Kleist (Sosias in « Amphitryon »), Brecht (the field preacher in « Mutter Courage »), Schiller (Franz Moor in « The Robbers ») and many others. In total, he played over 160 mostly leading roles, including in operettas or revues, either in Switzerland or in Germany (a country where he was a darling of audiences but that he had to leave when the Nazis came to power). He also acted in a few Swiss films between 1938 and 1947.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Short, squat, voluble and Italian-born, Tito Vuolo could not avoid being typecast as the jolly Italian in office. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, Tito Vuolo portrayed dozens of Italian barbers, pizza makers, vendors, grocers, waiters, hotel or restaurant proprietors. He played them well but he was at his best when he was not restricted to stereotypes, particularly in film noir where his good nature created a powerful contrast with the atmosphere of moral decay prevailing in such films as Kiss of Death (1947), The Web (1947), T-Men (1947), The Racket (1951), and what is probably the best of them all, The Enforcer (1951), as the taxi driver witnessing the murder at the beginning of the film.- Both very pretty and very lively, Dolly Davis was very active and very popular in the 1920s. She appeared mainly in comedies, very often in the company of her then companion André Roanne, but besides one appearance in a René Clair movie ('Le Voyage imaginaire, 1926), her films are now forgotten. Dolly Davis' career became international at end of the silent era and she went on with sound but decided to retire en 1937, devoting her time to painting.
- Production Designer
- Art Director
- Director
Kozlovsky, chief art director of the All-Union Children's Studio, has long been a guiding force in raising technical standards. Designers became established as leading creative members of film units in about 1935, and soon after that important technical improvements were made in most of the studios. Kozlovsky's studio introduced the idea of prefabricated basic sets and component parts, which soon came into general use. In 1938, as a result of a thoroughgoing exchange of experiences and ideas between studios, certain fundamental structures and some of the equipment were standardized. This has increased the designers' scope enormously, enabling them to carry out a variety of projects which in the past would have been impracticable. Among the films designed by Kozlovsky, who is a People's Artist, are "Mother", "The End of St. Petersburg', "The Deserter", "Lermontov", and his latest is "The 15-year-old Captain", after Jules Verne. (Catherine de la Roche : "Scenic Design in the Soviet Cinema", The Penguin Film Review # 3, London, August 1947, page 78)- The daughter of architect Carl Abraham, Ellen Aggerholm had a very long career on the stage (from 1901 to 1947, in Denmark, Norway and, before World War I in England) but a very short one as leading love interest for Nordisk Films between 1910 and 1914). Married to actor Svend Aggerholm, she took his name in 1903 and was his wife and often partner until his death in 1940.
- Born in 1892, Olaf Bach always dreamed of theater, even while he was studying building as a youth. And by dint of passion and hard work, he managed to land small parts first and then fleshier ones in all kinds of works (tragedies by Shakespeare, Franz Wedekind's "Büchse der Pandora", ...) From then on, he managed to wholly satisfy his passion, treading the boards uninterruptedly until the end of his life, in modern or classic plays and even in an operetta ("Die Frau ohne Kuss"). He also wrote two plays, "Deutsche Helden" and "Menschen von der Seite". Olaf Bach also participated in films, the first time in 1921 and 1922 and then from 1933 to 1943, but in generally secondary roles. After the war, he continued with his theater career but gave up acting in the movies. Olaf Bach died in 1963.
- Why the devil did Eddie Fetherstone appear more than forty times on the screen as a reporter, a newspaperman, a news or cinema operator, a photographer? It is a mystery that only the casting directors of the golden age of Hollywood could solve. For Eddie had nothing to do with journalism. For an unknown reason, his physical appearance was once associated with the aforementioned type of trade and on they went! In fact Eddie Fetherstone had been a vaudevillian from the start and comedies were more in his line. He did some for Capra, La Cava, McLeod, John Ford, but his roles were most often so tiny that you had to keep your eyes wide open not to miss his appearance.He fared better with Harold Lloyd in two of his feature-length talkies and in shorts for Columbia alongside Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges and Harry Langdon. Nevertheless he WAS the quintessential reporter, often wisecracking to be honest, the latter fact paying tribute to the comic he was at core. On the other hand, Eddie Fetherstone often found himself at the wheel of a cab or barking for shows. Another oddity was that directors found him excellent in roles of henchmen, thugs and other hoods. So much so that B-directors such as D. Ross Lederman or C.C. Coleman could hardly make their run-of-the-mill cop and robber adventures without his presence. Eddie Fetherstone was never a star but remained one of the movie industry's faithful companions for no less than four decades.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jan Kiepura, the son of a baker, was born in 1902 in the gloomy mining town of Sosnowiec, now in Poland, but situated in Russia at that time. He left his native town, that - although dirty and dark - would always remain dear to his heart, for Warsaw, where he started studying law. At the same time he took singing lessons with Waclaw Brzesinsky and Tadeusz Leliwa. He soon realized that singing was his real vocation and was lucky to benefit from the support of his parents, who understood how talented he was in this field. At age 23, Jan was hired for the first time, as a replacement in the choir of the Warsaw Opera, but he sang so loud that his voice covered all the other ones, which resulted in his being fired. However, three months later, he found himself on the same stage, but in the right place this time, as the lead singer of Gounod's "Faust". This outstanding performance marked the beginning of a rapid rise: from then on, Jan Kiepura was wanted everywhere in the world. In addition,it was not long before the cinema - now talking - required his beautiful voice and his good looks. As of the early thirties he starred in a series of filmed operettas. It was on the set of "Mein Herz ruft nach dir" that he met the woman of his life, Hungarian-born Marta Eggerth, another star singer, with whom he lived until his death in 1966 and who gave him two sons. In March '38, the couple fled Austria and took refuge in the South of France. The following year, he joined the French Polish Legion and shortly after the Phoney War, he was assigned the mission to defend the cause of invaded Poland in the States. He found Marta there and after the end of the War they teamed together on Broadway where they co-starred in "The Merry Widow" and "La Polonaise". In 1953, Jan and Marta settled down in the USA for good and Jan acquired American citizenship shortly afterwards. But his career quickly declined and, at the age of 64, he died of a heart attack in his New York State home.- Actor
- Additional Crew
A prestigious theater actor and stage director, member of the Comédie-Française, Jean Marchat also founded his own company, the Rideau de Paris. But, as is often the case with great names of the stage, Marchat's movie career does not live up to what he achieved on the boards. The handsome, manly, impressive actor could proudly say: 'I served Corneille, Péguy, Gide, Giraudoux, Mérimée, Roblès ... and many others'. He certainly did not boast about the ones he worked for in films: Gleize, Paulin, Stelli, Reinert, Vernay or Kapps! Not that any of their work was systematically terrible but those filmmakers definitely lacked ambition and personality. Occasionally though, Marchat would appear in a more artistic work. He was in a scene or two for Grémillon, Bresson or Guitry. But most of the time he lent his name to run-of-the-mill productions. He did it playing by the rules, without disdain. He always brought all his authority and his assurance to the characters he played, inferior as the film he was in was. He particularly shone when he embodied unpleasant fellows (an arrogant aristocrat, an upper class criminal, a spy, a collaborator) or figures of authority such as judges, prosecutors, bishops, generals and nobles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Wolf Albach-Retty (1906-1967) was one of those actors full of charm, presence and wit the Ausrian and German cinema of yore knew the secret for. That he became an actor comes as no surprise considering that his mother, Rosa Albach-Retty, was a star of the Viennese stage. Of course, Magda Schneider, the woman he married in 1936, was an actress. And logically indeed they begot another famous actress by the name of ... Romy Schneider. Unfortunately, being Romy's father is probably Wolf Albach-Retty's greatest claim for glory, for despite his acting talents he privileged - lock, stock and barrel - commercial cinema, opting for romance films, superficial musicals and mediocre comedies which pleased the crowds but did not make film history. Too bad because his acting talents would have been welcome in the world of Max Ophüls, Wolfgang Liebeneiner or Helmut Käutner, among others. His theater career was much more satisfactory, notably his acclaimed performances in plays by Athur Schnitler.- Actor
- Director
Passionate about theater to his very last day, Henri Rollan appeared in forty-odd movies, a career spanning six decades. He was one of the first few thespians to accept to play in moving pictures, as early as 1910, whereas most of his fellow actors regarded this new medium as definitely lowbrow. Fortunately for the spectators, a pocketful of repertory performers such as Le Bargy, Henri Rollan or the great Sarah Bernhardt saw no shame in bringing culture to a popular public that never went to the theatre, quite the opposite. Nevertheless, Henri Rollan did not grace many classics with his presence. Too bad because he would have been excellent in Renoir, Bresson, Clouzot or Autant-Lara's masterpieces. Henri Rollan was all too often in run-of-the mill productions of his time, forgettable and forgotten undemanding fare. Among the exceptions are his roles of the night watchman of the Eiffel Tower in René Clair's silent oddity "Paris qui dort" (1923), of the incompetent Maréchal d'Estrée in the famous "Fanfan la Tulipe" (Christian-Jaque, 1951) and of a French politician in Jacques Becker's "Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin. He was also long remembered for being Athos in Diamant-Berger two versions (one silent, one talking) of Dumas' "Les trois Mousquetaires". And that is about all. Which does not mean that he was not effective in the films he appeared in. He was always a great professional and his performances (most often as a tough, stiff, humorless character endowed with authority) are excellent whatever the film he is in. Of course where he really shone was on stage, as an actor first, later as a renowned director. He was also a much loved and respected drama teacher who guided among others the first steps of Jean Claudio, Jacques Fabbri, Raymond Devos, Anna Gaylor, Annie Girardot, Marie Dubois and Jacques Lorcey. None of these persons ever forgot Henri Rollan, a passionate man who had the gift to transmit his genuine passion to other young passionates.- Béla Barsi was a hyper-active thespian who worked without any interruption from the age of 22 to his death in 1968 at the too early age of 62. Barsi started his acting career in 1928 in the Romanian town of Cluj. One year later he settled down in his native Hungary where he landed roles alternately in Budapest and provincial theaters. From 1940 to 1944, he belonged to the Oradea company run by Bálint Putnik, and later (1948-1949) to the Györ Theater. Moving to Szeged, he performed in the town theater between 1949 and 1956. Then he became a member of the Budapest National Theater and played there until the end. As of 1952, he also worked in films, in roles of various importance. Bela Barsi thus had the opportunity to appear in films directed by the greatest names of Hungarian cinema, Zoltan Fábri (8 films), Imre Fehér (5 films), Miklós Jancsó (4 films), Karoly Makk (4 films), Felix Mariassy (3 films) and Istvan Gaal (1 film). One of his best roles is that of Istvan Pataki, a tyrannical farmer who has 'sold' his daughter's hand to his business partner in Fábri's stunning "Merry-Go-Round" (1955).
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Phil Arnold (1909 - 1968) was an American screen, stage and television actor who appeared in approximately 200 films and television shows between 1938 and 1968 - in bit parts most of the time. A regular in the Three Stooges shorts, he also participated in many B movies, a few A ones and a host of TV series episodes. Easily recognizable by his small stature, his expressive face and his bald head, he played mainly popular types, whether good or bad ones. As a villain, he could easily embody a henchman or an escaped convict . Among the rare white collar roles he played he was a dentist once and a professor twice. But he was mostly cast as a common man, often with a big big mouth. Several times a cabbie, a delivery man, a vendor or a cop he was also hired to play a waiter, bellboy, an elevator boy, a parking attendant, a stage hand or even a bum.- Actor
- Writer
Alexander Engel was born in Berlin on 4-6-1902. He studied drama at the Reicherschen Hochschule für dramatische Kunst. He debuted at the theater in Allenstein in 1923 and was later hired in Königsberg, in Rostock and, from 1931, in Berlin. One year later he started a film career that would occupy him until his death in Saarbrücken on 25-7-1968, successfully specializing in threatening and eerie characters.- Born in 1899, Tino Erler, who graduated in geometry, finally became a stage, film and radio actor. On the boards, he was a member of Max Reinhardt's Company in Venice and of Mario Mattoli's Compagnia Za-bum. He was also a very active radio actor (for EIAR, RAI and, in Switzerland, Lugano-based radio station) and dubber. As a film performer, his career was less impressive, only nine films from 1932 to 1945, eight in Italy and one in Switzerland, The Last Chance (1945), the classic war film, in which he played a fascist informer. It was also his swan song on the big screen. Tino Erler died in 1968.
- Although present on the screens, large and small, and on the stages of casinos, music halls and theaters for six decades, Lucien Callamand (1888-1968) did not leave a very striking memory in the collective memory. With a few exceptions, he did not stand out either for his eccentricity (like Le Vigan or Jules Berry) or for his pathetic side (he did not live through tragic love affairs and did not always die at the end like the Gabin of the 1930s). The same goes for his laughing side, even if in the 1910s and 1920s he did play the title role in the comedy series "Agénor"). With the coming of talkies and as he grew older, Callamand was in fact increasingly distributed in the roles of petty bourgeois - not very glorious but taking themselves seriously. Rarely a prole (like Carette) or a grand bourgeois (like Francen), even less an aristocrat (like Paul Bernard), he perfectly embodied these little people that the social elevator have hoisted halfway up the floor of the chosen. With his bald forehead, his long face (curiously fatter for a time in the early 1930s), often with a mustache and glasses, with his slightly stiff silhouette almost invariably buttoned up in a three-piece suit and tie, he was ideal for playing these people whose austere appearance is a make-believe of seriousness and a tool for exercising their power (the examiner of "L'Ecole buissonnière", the notary of "L'Etrange désir de M. Bard", the school principal of the "Cas du Docteur Laurent", and many others). The characters he played could be unpleasant (Monsieur Pipelet in "Les Mystères de Paris") and sneaky but he was not of the caliber of arch villains, witness "La Femme à l'orchidée", where his magnetism was insufficient to terrorize the viewer. Still to illustrate his definite lack of character, let us also note that although he was born and died in the South of France, he did not have the southern accent nor the southern manners that made Raimu and Fernandel famous. If he did regularly work in the studios of Marseille and Nice, he appeared only in very few typically southern comedies or dramas. What's more, even when he worked for Marcel Pagnol, he played a ferry captain who was... Breton ("Marius") or an aviator that looked and sounded more like a military than a Southerner ("La Fille du puisatier"). When all is said and done, It is decidedly in the roles of civil servants, small-time notaries, directors and doctors of little stature, board members and the like that Lucien Callamand was at his best, a perfection such that, often, he is not even noticed, all the more so as with time his presence on the screen dwindled to confine him sometimes to mere figuration. But, even when he only played bit parts, Lucien Callamand was nevertheless an integral part of this precious backdrop that helped the stories flourish during the golden years of French cinema. Thanks to him and his numerous brothers of arms, the films of this era, whatever their quality, give a precious reflection of the French society of the time in all its sociological diversity, city and countryside included. Let them be thanked for that.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Both a great dancer and a hilarious comedian, in show business since the age of three, Wally Vernon could have had a more significant screen career than he had. Not in terms of quantity since he appeared in no fewer than ninety-five movies or TV episodes but in terms of quality. Indeed besides Henry King and his delightful Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), no major director gave him a key role in a major picture. It is a pity, for Vernon was an excellent (eccentric) dancer à la Donald O'Connor who would have graced many a great musical with his dizzying presence. On the other hand his ability to deliver Runyon-esque dialogue would have been welcome in screwball comedy masterpieces by Frank Capra, George Cukor or Howard Hawks. Instead he served as a comical sidekick to Don 'Red' Barry in a series of low grade westerns or as a stooge to Eddie Quillan in a score of mildly amusing Columbia shorts. Television finally did justice to Vernon's special talents by making him a regular of the series "Damon Runyon Theater".- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Stéphane Pizella, who passed away too early at the age of 60, lived several lives. A movie actor first, he then wrote screenplays (his most famous one being Léo Joannon's Le carrefour des enfants perdus (1944)). After leaving the movie world in the mid-1940s, he became a journalist, gradually evolving to production for the French national radio. The programmes he wrote and produced were "Les nuits du bout du monde", "Ballades pour un homme seul" and "Concerto pour une ombre".