Jettchen Geberts Geschichte (1918)

Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918) ia a lost film. Set in mid-19th century Berlin, the plot deals with the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant's family, who falls in love with a delicate but penniless writer. Her family will not accept him and forces her to marry another merchant. The film was released in two parts, Jettchen Gebert and Henriette Jacoby. Mechtildis Thein starred as Jettchen, later named Henrietta and Conrad Veidt played her beloved.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 550/4. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Publicity still for Jettchen Gebert (Richard Oswald, 1918), starring Mechtildis Thein as the title character and Conrad Veidt as her beloved. The two other men are Max Gülstorff (sitting) as Uncle Eli and Leo Connard as Jettchen's father, Salomon Gebert.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 550/6. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Max Gülstorff and Helene Rietz as Uncle Eli and Aunt Minchen in Jettchen Gebert (Richard Oswald, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 220. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin. Richard Oswald.

Not accepted by her Jewish family

Georg Hermann (1871-1943) was one of the most successful German authors of his time. Particularly his double novel 'Jettchen Geberts Geschichte' (1906/1908) was broadly acclaimed by critics, regardless of confessional, political or regional boundaries. The public also loved it and a screen version followed ten years after the novel's publication.

Austrian-born director Richard Oswald adapted the novels by Georg Hermann for the screen. Max Faßbender was the cameraman. Richard Oswald's Berlin film company produced the film. Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story was made in two parts. The first episode was called Jettchen Gebert and the second was called Henriette Jacoby, just like the novels.

Set in mid-19th century Berlin, Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918) tells the story of Jettchen (Mechtildis Thein), the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant's family. She falls in love with Doktor Friedrich Köstling (Conrad Veidt), a delicate but penniless writer. Her family will not accept him and forces her to marry another merchant.

In her article 'Durchaus ein jüdischer Roman?', Franca Marquardt writes about the novel: "While antisemitism does not seem to pose a problem for the assimilated Jews of Berlin populating Hermann's novels, their fellows from the East are portraited as stereotypical 'Ostjuden', despised by the 'Western' Jews as much as by the narrator. While other forms of 'Jewishness' are hardly depicted, antisemitism appears as an attitude only of Jews towards each other." Marquardt argues that precisely this recurring pattern could appeal to both Jews and non-Jews at the beginning of the last century, but seems an unbridgeable gap to readers today.

And what about Richard Oswald's film version? Oswald was the son of a wealthy merchant and his father was also a devout Jew. Oswald had moved to Germany after anti-Semitic hostility in Austria. It would be interesting to see his view on the novel. But we will never know, while his film is considered lost. We only have the postcards with film scenes. Berlin Publisher Rotophot., the precursor of Ross Verlag, produced in the Film Sterne series two series of six sepia cards for the film.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/1. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Max Gülstorff and Helene Rietz in Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918).


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/3. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Mechtildis Thein as the title character, Leo Connard as her father Salomon Gebert and Conrad Veidt (right) as her beloved in JHenriette Jacoby (Richard Oswald, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/4. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Mechtildis Thein and Conrad Veidt in Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 551/5. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Publicity still for Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918), starring Conrad Veidt, here with Leo Connard as Jettchen's father, Salomon Gebert, rejecting his daughter's suitor.

Sources: Franca Marquardt (JSTOR), Filmportal, Wikipedia (English) and IMDb.

Carlos und Elisabeth (1924)

The story of the German silent historical drama Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924) is based on 'Don Carlos', the play by Friedrich Schiller and the opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Director Richard Oswald modelled the film's visuals on a staging of the play by Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater. The film is abundantly operatic, with romantic passion and politics intertwining. The main character is King Philip of Spain (Eugen Klöpfer), who married Mary Tudor Queen of England, and wanted to marry her sister, Elizabeth I. His second wife was a French princess, Elisabeth de Valois (Dagny Servaes), who thought she was intended for his son Carlos (Conrad Veidt), the crown prince of Spain. Don Carlos is a poetic and liberal young man who is the hope of those who would like to see freedom of religion, while his father is a promoter of the Inquisition and oppression both in Spain and in Flanders. Carlos remains in love with Elisabeth.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/1. Photo: Krabbe / ROFilm. Dagny Servaes as Elisabeth of Valois, wife of Philip II and Queen of Spain in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/2. Photo: Krabbe / RO-Film. Conrad Veidt as Don Carlos in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/3. Photo: Krabbe / RO-Film. Conrad Veidt as Don Carlos in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/4. Photo: Krabbe / RO-Film. Conrad Veidt as Don Carlos and Wilhelm Dieterle as Marquis Posa in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/5. Photo: Krabbe / ROFilm. Dagny Servaes and Conrad Veidt in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/7. Photo: Krabbe / ROFilm. Conrad Veidt as Don Carlos and Aud Egede Nissen as the Princess of Eboli in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Conrad Veidt

Conrad Veidt (1893–1943) was the 'most highly strung and romantically handsome of the German expressionist actors'. From 1916 until his death, he appeared in over 100 films, including such classics as Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1920) as the sleep-walking killer Cesare, and Casablanca (1942) as Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser. He played in the 'first gay film', Anders als die Andern (1919) and his starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928) was the inspiration for Batman's greatest enemy, The Joker.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1426/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Vaida M. Pál, Budapest.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 272/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 564/1, 1919-1924. Photo: R Film. Publicity still for Lady Hamilton (Richard Oswald, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 564/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Conrad Veidt Film. Publicity still for Paganini (Heinz Goldberg, 1923).


Russian postcard, no. 6, 1928.

A creature from Poe's nightmares

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt was born in 1893, in Potsdam, Germany. He attended the Sophiengymnasium (a secondary school) in the Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in 1912.

Veidt received his basic acting training and stage experience from Max Reinhardt, and appeared at the age of 20 — just before World War I — at Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1914, he met actress Lucie Mannheim, with whom he began a relationship.

Later in the year he was drafted into the German Army during World War I. In 1915, Veidt was sent to the Eastern Front as a noncommissioned officer and took part in the Battle of Warsaw. He contracted jaundice and pneumonia, and had to be evacuated to a hospital on the Baltic Sea.

While recuperating, he received a letter from Lucie Mannheim informing him that she had found work at a front theatre.  Intrigued, Veidt applied for the theatre as well. As his condition had not improved, the army allowed him to join the theatre so that he could entertain the troops. It was also during this time that his relationship with Mannheim ended. In late 1916, he was reexamined by the Army and deemed unfit for service; he was given a full discharge in January 1917. Veidt then returned to Berlin to pursue his acting career.

Director Richard Oswald encouraged him to go into films. He was seen in such silent films as Der Weg des Todes/The Road of Death (Robert Reinert, 1917) with Maria Carmi, Furcht/Fear (Robert Wiene, 1917), Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen/The Diary of a Lost Woman (Richard Oswald, 1918) with Erna Morena, Opium (Robert Reinert, 1919) with Werner Krauss, and as Lucifer in Satanas/Satan (F.W. Murnau, 1920) starring Fritz Kortner.

The anonymous biographer at Lenin Imports writes: "Veidt was the most highly strung and romantically handsome of German expressionist actors. He was a creature from Poe's nightmares - tall, gaunt, glowing with a mixture of illness and ecstatic anxiety. Amid so many overweight actors, Veidt was an attenuated, hypersensitive figure, the aesthete or artist tormented by dark forces and driven to violence. His movements were deliberately slowed and prolonged".


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 272/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 539/1. Photo: May Film. Conrad Veidt as the proud and cruel Maharajah of Eschnapur in the two-part monumental film Das indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Joe May, 1921-1922).


German postcard. Photo: Richard Oswald Film. Perhaps a publicity still for Lucrezia Borgia (Richard Oswald, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/5. Photo: Krabbe. Publicity still for Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924) with Dagny Servaes.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 933/1, 1925-1926. Publicity still for Das Wachsfigurenkabinett/Waxworks (Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 934/1, 1925-1926. Conrad Veidt starring in the Franco-German coproduction Le Comte Kostia/ Graf Kostja (Jacques Robert, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1561/2, 1927-1928. Photo: ?

Caligari

With his impressive height, handsomely gaunt face, high cheekbones and wide, thin-lipped mouth, Conrad Veidt seemed a natural to play sinister, tortured roles. To many silent film fans, he is primarily known for his Cesare, the sleep-walking killer in Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). His first close-up of Cesare was riveting: a pale face and harrowed eyes, awakened from sleep. Unforgettable was also the rhythmic, boldly diagonal way he crept along a wall to kidnap Lil Dagover. Cesare became one of the most influential performances in the history of the fantasy and horror film.

Veidt did a brave appearance in Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering homosexual rights film Anders als die Andern/Different from the Others (Richard Oswald, 1919). It is credited as being the first gay film: it argued for reform of the harsh German laws regarding homosexuality. The film had a very short run in Germany before being pulled, and people who attended it were, according to the reviewer on IMDb, harassed.

Veidt then worked in the full range of the German cinema: the Jekyll and Hyde film Der Januskopf/The Two-Faced Man (F. W. Murnau, 1920) with Béla Lugosi, the exotic adventure epic Das Indische Grabmal/The Indian Tomb (Joe May, 1921) starring Olaf Fønss and Mia May, the melodrama Der Gang in die Nacht/Journey Into the Night (F.W. Murnau, 1921), the historic film Danton (Dmitri Buchowetzki, 1922) starring Emil Jannings, and the drama Die Brüder Schellenberg/The Brothers Schellenberg (Karl Grune, 1926).

He starred in three classic horror films, in Das Wachsfigurenkabinett/The Three Wax Works (Paul Leni, Leo Birinsky, 1924) as Ivan the Terrible, in Orlacs Hände/The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924) as Orlac, and in Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Henrik Galeen, 1926) as the student and his doppelganger. In addition he directed also films himself, including Wahnsinn/Madness (1919) with Reinhold Schünzel, and Die Nacht auf Goldenhall/The Night at Goldenhall (1920) with his then-wife Gussy Holl.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1682/2, 1927-1928. Conrad Veidt preparing for his first trip to the United States. Caption: his most precious luggage item. The child is his daughter, Viola Veidt.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1682/3, 1927-1928. Conrad Veidt and his wife Felicitas Radke preparing for his first trip to the United States. Caption:"Do you think, Conny, one can wear such a coat in Hollywood?"


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1719/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Arthur Ziehm, Berlin. Publicity still for Kreuzzug des Weibes/The Wife's Crusade (Martin Berger, 1926) with Harry Liedtke.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1670/1, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1670/2, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland, 1927). Conrad Veidt plays a cruel and superstitious French king Louis XI.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1692/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Sokal Film. Publicity still for Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Henrik Galeen, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 105/1. Photo: Universal Pictures Corp. Publicity still for The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928) with Mary Philbin.

The Joker

Conrad Veidt worked briefly in Sweden – Ingmarsarvet/The Ingmar Inheritance (Gustaf Molander, 1925) with Lars Hanson, and in Italy - the Luigi Pirandello adaptation Enrico I/The Flight in the Night (Amleto Palermi, 1926).

Then he took up an offer to play Louis XI to John Barrymore's Francois Villon in The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland, 1927). Veidt stayed in Hollywood for A Man's Past (George Melford, 1927), and The Last Performance (Paul Fejos, 1927).

In The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928) he played a disfigured circus performer, one of his most sublime performances. His grotesque grin was achieved with a prosthesis. Comic book artist and Batman creator Bob Kane, writer Bill Finger and artist Jerry Robinson used stills of Veidt in The Man Who Laughs as inspiration for the iconic supervillain The Joker.

Back in Germany, Veidt made Germany's first talking picture Das Land ohne Frauen/The Land Without Women (Carmine Gallone, 1929) about Australia in the days when the search for gold fused together men of all nations. His beautiful speaking voice consolidated his star position.

He was cast as Count Metternich in the immensely popular operetta Der Kongress Tanzt (Erik Charell, 1931) with Lilian Harvey, both in the original and in the English-language version, The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).

He also appeared oppposite Elza Temary in Rasputin (Adolph Trotz, 1932) as the legendary mystic who ruled the czarist court in its last years, as the czarina hoped he could heal her son's haemophilia. In 1916 Rasputin was murdered by a number of aristocrats, but not before predicting the downfall of the regime.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 135/2, 1929-1933. Photo: Lichtenstein / Gottschalk-Tonfilm. Publicity still for Rasputin (Adolph Trotz, 1931) with Elza Temary.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3919/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Roman Freulich.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 943/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 943/5, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4200/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/7. Photo: Ufa. Still with Conrad Veidt (Count Metternich) and Lil Dagover (Countess) in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).

The Wandering Jew

Conrad Veidt then moved to England for the thriller Express Rome (Walter Forde, 1932) and The Wandering Jew (Maurice Elvey, 1933), the fantasy of the Jew who cursed Christ and found himself stuck on earth till the Second Coming.

Back in Germany he was in F.P.I. Antwortet Nicht/F. P. 1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1933). Veidt sang the title song Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay. It was a flop at the time, but became a hit in the United Kingdom in 1980. BBC presenter Terry Wogan had played it as a request on his breakfast show and was flooded afterwards with letters asking for a repeat.

Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime. His activities came under the scrutiny of the Gestapo, and a decision was made to assassinate him. Veidt found out about the plot, and managed to escape Germany in 1933 a week after marrying a half-Jewish woman, Illona Prager. He was married twice before, and reportedly he was bisexual. He was first married to actress Gussy Holl (1919-1922) and in 1923 he married Felicitas Radke, a woman from an aristocratic German family. They divorced in 1932. Their daughter, Viola Veidt, was born in 1925.

Her father settled in the United Kingdom and continued making films. In England, Veidt played in Jew Suss (Lothar Mendes, 1934), a satire of Nazi anti-Semitism, based on the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger. Although it was not a success with audiences, it did succeed in angering Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels who banned all of Veidt's films from Germany.

Veidt became a British citizen in 1938. His most interesting British pictures were two films directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940). When the war started, producer Alexander Korda shipped Veidt to the United States to play the Vizier in The Thief of Baghdad (Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Ludwig Berger, 1940)

TCM notes that Veidt added "immeasurably to his role as the demonic magician and grand vizier Jaffar. He spent his last years playing Germans in such Hollywood films as Escape (Mervyn Le Roy, 1940) - in which he and Norma Shearer made a dynamic pair as a German general and his American mistress, A Woman's Face (George Cukor, 1941) as the lover and onetime partner in crime of Joan Crawford, and Nazi Agent (Jules Dassin, 1942) - in which he had a dual role as a Nazi and as the Nazi's twin brother.

But he is best known for playing the Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) opposite Humphrey Bogart. When Britain went to war, Veidt gave most of his estate to the war effort. He also donated a large portion of the salary from each of his films to the British war relief, as well - he was the highest paid actor in Casablanca.

His last film was Above Suspicion (Richard Thorpe, 1943), in which he played an Austrian undercover agent.

In 1943, Conrad Veidt suddenly died of a heart attack during a game of golf in Los Angeles. He was playing with Arthur Field of MGM and his personal physician, Dr. Bergman, who pronounced him dead at the scene. His death at just 50 was possibly a result of his heavy smoking. Because he had been blacklisted in Nazi Germany, there was no official announcement there of his death. His ex-wife, Felicitas, and daughter Viola, in Switzerland, heard about it on the radio.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 7621/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ich und die Kaiserin/The Empress and I (Friedrich Hollaender, 1933)


Vintage postcard. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1365. Photo: British National. Publicity still for Contraband (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1940).


British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 167. Photo: Gaumont-British Pictures.


Dutch postcard, no. 142. Photo: Universal.


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 33. Photo: Gaumont-British. Publicity still for Jew Süss (Lothar Mendes, 1934).


DVD Trailer of Orlacs Hände/The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924). Source: Kino International (YouTube).


Conrad Veidt sings There's a lighthouse shines across the bay (1933). Source: Allanh53 (YouTube).

Sources: Peter Jacobs (Gay For Today), Roger Manvell (Film Reference), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Doug Sederberg (IMDb), Lenin Imports, Filmportal.de (German), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Yes, this week, we're back in Italy for the 29th Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna! One of this edition's sections is Technicolor & Co. It is a rediscovery of the original colour of film with a special celebration of Technicolor, which in 2015 turns 100! The section includes the last film made in Technicolor, The Thin Red Line (1998) by Terrence Malick, and the digital restoration of Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz (1939) in 3D, an ‘impossible’ restoration of a film that was not originally conceived in three dimensions. And today, there is that wonderful classic The Thief of Bagdad (1941) by Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan. Alas, not all our postcards are in Technicolor.


Italian programme card for Il Cinema Ritrovata 2011. Photo: publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Alexander Korda, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies, 1940) with June Deprez as the Princess and Conrad Veidt as Jaffar. Vivien Leigh was originally cast in the role of the Princess, but when, in late 1938, she won the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Producer Alexander Korda gave the role to Duprez.

The best Arabian Nights adventure ever

There have been several film versions of the story of the good-natured young thief of ancient Bagdad (as it was once spelled). Raoul Walsh made the first, silent, rendering of Thief of Bagdad in 1924, starring Douglas Fairbanks. Still a marvellously entertaining film.

But the best Arabian Nights adventure ever is the 1940's Technicolor version of The Thief of Bagdad. It has a startling, magical panoply of top quality special effects, which still work their charm after more than seventy years, a stellar cast and wonderfully catchy music. The Thief of Bagdad is simply one of the best fantasy films ever made. But who was the director?

Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "Essentially behind (the original director Ludwig) Berger's back, British director Michael Powell was brought in to shoot various scenes - and Powell's scheduled work grew in amount and importance whilst, in the meantime, Korda himself did his best to undercut Berger on his own set; and while publicly siding with Berger on the issue of the music, he also undercut Berger's chosen composer (Oscar Straus) by bringing in Miklos Rozsa and putting him into an office directly adjacent to Berger's with a piano, to work on a score. Eventually, Berger was persuaded to walk away from the project, and American filmmaker Tim Whalen, who had just finished work on another Korda-produced movie (Q Planes) was brought in to help augment Powell's work."

Producer Alexander Korda was so demanding that he went through six directors during the production of The Thief of Bagdad, including his brother Zoltan Korda and leading art director William Cameron Menzies. For the special effects, from a magic flying carpet to the gargantuan genie who pops out of a bottle with a tornado-like black swirl, two men were responsible: Lawrence W. Butler and Tom Howard. Both had long and distinguished careers in technical wizardry.

Bruce Eder: "Accounts by those involved have varied across the decades, but most maintained that hardly anything directed by Berger made the final cut; the film is considered a prime example of Powell's early output, displaying the wit, flair, and stylish camerawork that would inform his subsequent work."


German collectors card by Küno's Film-Foto in the series Der Dieb von Bagdad, no. 1, presented by Sparkasse bank. Photo: publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940) with Sabu as Abu.


German collectors card by Küno's Film-Foto in the series Der Dieb von Bagdad, no. 2, presented by Sparkasse bank. Photo: publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940) with John Justin as Ahmad and Sabu as Abu.

A genie with an attitude

The Thief of Bagdad stars Sabu as the boy thief, Abu, the debuting John Justin as the dreamily in love prince Ahmad and young up-and-coming starlet June Duprez as the lovely princess sought by Ahmad and pursued by the evil vizier, Jaffar, played by a sinister Conrad Veidt. Rex Ingram plays the giant genie in the bottle who has an equally massive attitude.

The story focusses on Prince Ahmad, the rightful King of Bagdad. The idealistic prince wants to slum it amongst his people for a while to check things out. But the evil Vizier Jaffar takes his chance to imprison the beggar-prince and seize the throne.

Ahmad is cast into the palace dungeon where he meets Abu, the best thief in all Bagdad. Together they escape and make their way to Basra where Ahmad falls in love with the beautiful Princess.

However, Jaffar also journeys to Basra, for he desires the Princess. Her father, the Sultan (Miles Malleson, who also wrote the screenplay), is fascinated by the magical mechanical flying horse Jaffar offers and agrees to the proposed marriage. Upon hearing the news, the Princess, by now deeply in love with Ahmad, runs away.

The prince and thief are haunted by Jaffar. He magically blinds Ahmad and turns Abu into a dog. The spell can only be broken if Jaffar holds the Princess in his arms.

It's just the start of Ahmad and Abu's dazzling adventures that involve an all-seeing magic jewel, a giant spider, a flying carpet and that massive Djinn in a bottle.


German collectors card by Küno's Film-Foto in the series Der Dieb von Bagdad, no. 3 presented by Sparkasse bank. Photo: publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940) with Sabu.


German collectors card by Küno's Film-Foto in the series Der Dieb von Bagdad, no. 4, presented by Sparkasse bank. Photo: publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940) with Rex Ingram as the Djinn.

The tops of the actresses' costumes had to be buttoned up

Filming of The Thief of Bagdad began at London's Denham Studios, which had just merged with J. Arthur Rank's nearby Pinewood Studios.

Because of the Blitz, the production had to be relocated to Hollywood. There was such a long break in production, Sabu's early scenes had to be re-shot because he had grown several inches.

When filming began in the US, the stricter censorship codes of the Hays Office there were applied. One of the most obvious differences between the scenes shot in the UK and those filmed in the USA is that the tops of the actresses' costumes were buttoned up all the way to satisfy the Hays Office. That kind of clue makes it easier to identify the US-shot scenes than trying to spot differences in the sets.

The film won three Oscars: Production design by William Cameron Menzies and Vincent Korda, Cinematography by George Perinal and Special effects by Osmond Borradaile . Furthermore one nomination for the evocative and oriental musical score by Miklos Rozsa.


Trailer for The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940). Source: Plamen Plamenov (YouTube).

Sources: Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Il Cinema Ritrovato 2015, Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Choice of Didier Hanson

Yes I know, you've read it here before: not every postcard at European Film Star Postcards is from my own collection. A friend who shares - and shares - gently numerous scans from his superb collection is Didier Hanson from Belgium. His collection is simply incredible. It contains so many rare postcards from the silent period. Today we proudly present you his choice of his 10 favorite postcards, but like Didier writes: "This list is not listed by preference; and the list could be different next week, even next day....."


Vera Voronina. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5624. Photo: D'Ora (Dora Kallmus), Arthur Benda.


Helena Makowska. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 758/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.
Didier Hanson: "Two rare russian actresses, rather obscure. Very little is known about them. The pictures are superb,and that makes them really interesting."


Karl Huszár-Puffy. Vintage postcard by Verlag Hartiq, no. 576. Photo: Hartiq.
"Nice smiling face of an unfortunate hungarian actor.He could have been the next Fatty,if..."


Inez van Bree. German postcard by Ross, Berlin, no 1581/1, 1927-1928.
"Not only the picture is superb and ahead of its time,but her life is rather enigmatic, therefore intriguing and interesting."


Gaby Deslys. British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 11843 Q. Photo: Talbot, Paris.
"Megastar in her time, sweetheart of kings and wealthy men, this picture is incredible. Look at the furs and hat; splendid and impossible to reproduce today!"


Conrad Veidt. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no 1110/1, 1927-1928.
"I selected this one at random,any card of him is interesting. His unique face and posture, besides his acting, have made of him a unique actor.

.
Béla Lugosi. Hungarian postcard. Photo: Angelo, Budapest.
"Bela, Bela, Bela!! This card is a super rare one, and represents him as a young aspiring actor, far from the Count D.; Signed too... My card has been used on a multitude of sites, posts, blogs and so on. A gem... Angelo photo."


Erich von Stroheim. French postcard by Viny, no. 92. Photo: Milo Films.
"Incredible photo, and actor, who rewrote his own life in his own terms. No, he was not an aristocrat, but a Jewish bourgeois. And more, he became to believe his own stories. Unique actor, so hieratically photogenic. I like him a lot."


Lily Damita. German postcard by Ross verlag, no. 4767/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.
"See the card. She was certainly one of the most beautiful women of the time, if not a great actress."


Genia Nikolaieva. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7317/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Atelier Marion, Berlin.
"Russian born actress, began a wonderful career. Goebbels gave her his go to work despite her origins, but she decided to emigrate to the USA, following M. Dietrich's advice. Her accent was too strong, so she became one of the most beautiful secretaries at Warner. How can you be indifferent to such an adventurous (and long) life?"

Didier concludes: "I would have add Ludwig Trautmann, I like him very much, but let's stick to ten....Besides the darlings La Jana And Lya of course!"

Thanks, Didier!