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Films

Françoise Dorléac – what might have been

Around 1965. Françoise Dorléac in a bodystocking.

Sexy, stylish and sparky, full of joie de vivre, Françoise Dorléac was, in the words of Vogue magazine, a “gamine fatale.”  Add to that cocktail her distinctive husky voice and ability to come across totally naturally on screen and it’s no surprise that she didn’t have to wait around for her career as a movie star to achieve lift-off.

During that short career, she made 21 films as well as working as a catwalk model for Dior in her teens:

A photographer asked if I would model for some fashion pictures and I said fine. A producer saw my pictures in the press and hired me for a small role for a film during the school holidays.

Perhaps it was her brush with the fashion world that led her to obsessively cultivate her image, aiming to “keep a certain class, but look erotic”:

I want to dress so that everybody tries to dress like me, and nobody can. I love it when you are completely dressed and you look naked. I wear chain belts to look fragile, like a slave. Every time I go out, even if it’s six o’clock in the morning, when nobody can see, it’s still important.

But she was always going to be an actress. Her parents, Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot, were both actors themselves (Renée was born Deneuve but adopted Simonot as her stage name). The latter was one of the first to enter the field of dubbing American films for the French market, becoming the voice of, among others, Olivia de Havilland, Sylvia Sidney, Judy Garland, Donna Reed and Esther Williams.

Françoise first appeared on screen in the movie short Mensonges (1957) but her career proper began in 1960. It took off in 1964 with François Truffaut’s romantic drama La peau douce (The Soft Skin) and Philippe de Broca’s spy spoof That Man from Rio. Those two movies showcase both her range and her potential as an actress and make her premature death all the more poignant.

1966. Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasance in Cul-de-sac.

Françoise Dorléac – from dead end to dead

I first came across Françoise Dorléac many years ago starring opposite Donald Pleasance in Roman Polanski’s weird and wonderful black comedy, Cul-de-sac (1966). In case English is not your first language and you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, a cul-de-sac is a no-through road or dead end.

In her third appearance in a non-French film, Françoise is cast as Teresa, a bored and hedonistic wife with little time for or interest in her weak and pathetic husband George, played by Donald Pleasance. As the film opens, a couple of sinister crooks with overtones of Laurel and Hardy arrive on Lindisfarne, the remote island on which George and Teresa have made their home. He is simultaneously indignant and cringing, she is self-obsessed and capricious. The subsequent action plays out through a series of grotesque twists and turns, the product of director Roman Polanski’s fertile and lurid imagination, seemingly inspired in part by the plays of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. 

According to Françoise:

Polanski is completely preoccupied with film; he doesn’t think about the actors as human beings at all. But I do not mind it; he is a brilliant director.

She’s right. It’s quite a movie and deservedly wins the Golden Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

A year later, she jumps into the Renault 10 she’s been renting during her fortnight’s break in Saint-Tropez. She needs to be back in London for the English-dubbed premiere of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (more on that later). It’s 60 miles to Nice Airport, from which she’ll catch a plane to Paris Orly and then a connecting flight to London. But she’s left it late, she’s in a rush and as she heads for the airport a light drizzle begins to fall.

Less than ten miles to go and after a long dry spell the road surface is slippery. Françoise pulls out to overtake the car in front of her and as she pulls back across the road she loses control of the car, it goes into a spin and crashes into a signpost at the side of the road. By the time the driver of the car she’s overtaken has pulled over to help, it’s too late. The Renault is already on fire and the heat too intense for him to get near. He sees Françoise beating her fists against the driver’s window in a desperate attempt to escape before the car explodes. She was just 25 years old.

When the police arrive, they find among the wreckage the bodies of a young woman and a small dog, and in a charred handbag among the luggage in the boot the burnt remnants of a driver’s license and a chequebook.

1960. Françoise Dorléac (right) with her younger sister Catherine Deneuve.

Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve and François Truffaut

Arguably the two most important people in Françoise Dorléac’s life are her sister Catherine Deneuve and director François Truffaut.

It is largely thanks to Françoise’s initiative that Catherine becomes an actress. In her second feature film, Les portes claquent (1960) the producers need to find someone to play Françoise’s character’s younger sister. Who could be better than her younger sister in real life, she suggests. So Catherine makes her screen debut. But why does she have a different surname?

It was impossible for me to have the same name as my sister Françoise. Or at least, that’s what my family said at the time… If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t make that decision! I love my mother dearly but I don’t like her maiden name. It’s hard to pronounce. I prefer my real name.

Françoise and Catherine make an intriguing pair and you can judge for yourself by watching Jacques Demy’s 1967 tribute to the Hollywood musical, Les demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) in which they co-star as twin sisters.

For all their similarities, according to Catherine, “[Françoise] used to say that the two of us together would make one complete woman because we were so different.” To put it another way, they’re like two sides of the same coin.

Françoise is effervescent, spirited and adventurous, while Catherine is cool, reserved and cautious. Their mother remembers Françoise throwing herself at everything “with passion” while describing Catherine as a “tender, fragile little girl who loved candy.” Their clothes reflect their personalities. Françoise is into the metallics and prints so fashionable around the mid-1960s, Catherine goes for a more sophisticated, classic look. In a 1966 interview Catherine declares:

1969. François Truffaut goes out with Catherine Deneuve. Read more.

She claims she always looks like she has nothing in the closet and I look like I have six closets. She wears casual things but she has 100 casual things and I have three subtle things.”

But appearances can be deceptive. Underneath her extrovert character, Françoise has her insecurities: “I find that with each picture, I become less confident about my ability to do good work.” It’s only at the insistence of her mother that in 1965 she finally moves out of the family home. Even then, it’s only to an apartment across the street, which her mother finds for her.

François Truffaut collaborates with Françoise on just one film, La peau douce, but that belies his significance to her. Initially, things look far from promising:

I met Truffaut and realised how good it would be to make a film with him. The trouble was I disliked him on sight and it wasn’t long before he told me the same. In fact, he found me unbearable. We had a few tense months together before we realised our first impressions were wrong and found the beginnings of mutual discovery.

In fact they become lovers for a while and subsequently remain close friends.

Truffaut draws from Françoise a truly wonderful performance as Nicole, an air hostess who has an affair with Pierre (Jean Desailly), a publisher and literary celebrity. To achieve that, he encourages her to relax (he reckons her movements are too jerky) and slow down, not least in terms of the way she talks. The film is a perceptive and tender depiction of its characters’ dreams, insecurities and vulnerabilities. The story is of deep personal significance to Truffaut, whose marriage is breaking up and who has himself embarked on an affair with Françoise. Afterwards, the pair remain close friends. On its release, La peau douce appeals more to critics than to audiences but its reputation has grown over time and it is definitely worth looking out.

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francoise dorleac la peau douce

1. La peau douce (1964)

Pierre (Jean Desailly) is mesmerised by Nicole as she takes to the dance floor.

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francoise dorleac donald pleasance cul-de-sac

2. Cul-de-sac (1966)

The entire film – from Criterion, no less. Don’t miss this one!

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francoise dorleac catherine deneuve documentary

3. Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

A behind-the-scenes documentary. Although it’s mostly in French, you can view English subtitles by clicking on the CC button at the bottom of the image.

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francoise dorleac catherine deneuve demoiselles

4. Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

A trailer for the movie.

Françoise Dorléac – a tribute

It is Truffaut who should have the last word about Françoise Dorléac. She clearly made a huge impression on him and, following her death, he wrote movingly of her in Cahiers de Cinéma. I’ve done my best to translate his words into English, but there are subtleties, plays on words here that pretty much defy translation. So in one particular case, I’ve added the original French should you wish to see it.

1960. Françoise Dorléac, 17, in her dressing room at the Théâtre Antoine. She’s been cast as Gigi in the eponymous play by Colette. Photo by François Gragnon.

Her name was Françoise

I ask for permission to post one or two photos of Françoise Dorléac who died on 26 June last year in a car accident en route to Nice Airport. For the public, it was just a news item, all the more cruel because it involved a very beautiful 25-year-old girl, an actress who had not yet had time to become a star. For everyone who knew her, Françoise Dorléac represented more, the kind of person one meets only rarely in one’s life, an exceptional young woman whose charm, femininity, intelligence, grace and incredible moral force made her unforgettable to anyone who spoke for an hour with her.

Her strong, even bossy, personality, was in contrast to her fragile and lithe physique, which had the quality of seaweed or a greyhound. Françoise Dorléac was, in my opinion, an actress insufficiently appreciated. In her thirties she would have won the hearts of the general public – they would then have adored her in the same way as did all those who had the chance to work with her.

The challenge for a young actress is to transition smoothly from girl to woman, from juvenile to adult roles; I believe that Françoise Dorléac, a precocious woman, mature beyond her years, her face and figure already blossoming and her looks, as we say in the trade, made to last [son visage et son corps déjà construits et, comme on dit dans les studios, construits en dur et pour durer], was the only young actress one might have expected to get better and better.

Ever since she was a teenager, she took two cold showers a day, asserting that “You prepare for your forties in your twenties.” When she was impatient to find roles and make films, I tried to convince her that she had nothing to fear from the passage of the years and that time was on her side. I told her that we would make a film every six years and I booked her appointments for 1970, 1976, 1982.

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Françoise Dorléac with Jean-Pierre Cassel

Françoise Dorléac with Jean-Pierre Cassel

1961. Françoise Dorléac and Jean-Pierre Cassel co-star in La gamberge (from which this is likely a scene) and Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin. Cassel falls in love Françoise and remembers the affair as “a terrible, destructive passion.” There is an International Magazine Service copyright stamp on the back of the photo.

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Françoise Dorléac in That Man from Rio

Françoise Dorléac in That Man from Rio

1964. In Philippe de Broca’s L’Homme de Rio (That Man from Rio, 1964), Françoise Dorléac stars opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo. It’s a spoof spy movie apparently inspired by the Tintin comics and proves to be a big box-office success.

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Françoise Dorléac at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival

Françoise Dorléac at the Cannes Film Festival

May 1964. Françoise Dorléac at the Cannes Film Festival. There are Reporters Associés and International Magazine Service copyright stamps on the back of the photo. There is a copy of this photo at Getty Images.

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Françoise Dorléac in a floral dress

Françoise Dorléac in a floral dress

1964. There is an International Magazine Service copyright stamp on the back of the photo. Photo by Chris Kindahl/Dalmas.

Every time I wrote to her, I put on the envelope “Mademoiselle Framboise* (Raspberry) Dorléac”* to make sure she would read my letter with a smile. Françoise Dorléac was resolute, bordering on obstinate, she was principled, her interviews were rich in aphorisms, and she was demanding in matters of life and love. She could suddenly cast a very severe look in the direction of someone who raised her suspicions.

Until then, only smiles, laughs and giggles and that’s what makes June 26 last year unacceptable, those great cascades of laughter cut short.

* Probably inspired by Bob Lapointe’s 1960 song Avanie et framboise, whose opening lines are:

Elle s’appelait Françoise
Mais on l’appelait Framboise

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Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

13 April 1966. Two assistants help Françoise Dorléac to climb a tree in which she is going to pose for a fashion shoot.

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Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

13 April 1966. The theme of the shoot seems to be jumpsuits. It is for Dim Dam Dom, a French TV show that focuses on the latest fashion and music trends.

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Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

13 April 1966. The jumpsuit she’s wearing here is a rather wonderful print redolent of the period.

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Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

Françoise Dorléac does a tree-top fashion shoot

13 April 1966. The photos are by Philippe Le Tellier. There are other photos from this shoot at Getty Images.

Want to know more about Françoise Dorléac?

The most compelling account of Françoise Dorléac’s life and death is in The New European. For online facts and figures head over to Wikipedia. Other sources include IMDb, Cinema Scholars, Vogue, Pure France and The Famous People.

If you can understand French, you could take a look at a 50-minute documentary about Françoise Dorléac and listen to François Truffaut talking about her.

In print there are:

  • Elle S’Appelait Françoise by Catherine Deneuve and Patrick Modiano
  • a chapter on Françoise in The Continental Actress 
  • an article, Françoise Dorléac A shooting star of Sixties French cinema, by M Anderson in Film comment, Volume 41 number 4 (2005).

Other topics you might be interested in…

Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard
Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard – fiction and friction
Claudine Auger wrapped in fur
Claudine Auger – young, beautiful, trapped, could be dangerous
The sixties – sex, drugs, rock and roll and a whole lot more

Filed Under: Crew, Fashion, Films, Stars Tagged With: Catherine Deneuve, Cul-de-sac, François Truffaut, Françoise Dorléac, Jacques Demy, La peau douce, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Philippe le Tellier, Roman Polanski

Claudia Cardinale – up for a challenge

1966. Claudia Cardinale, radiant, at an event. Read more.

During the early 1960s, the Italian actresses whose names were on audiences’ lips outside Italy were Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. They’d broken into Hollywood and in doing so left a gap back home. Into that gap stepped Claudia Cardinale with glorious aplomb.

In 1963, her breakthrough year, she starred in two of the iconic films of the era: Federico Fellini’s 8½ and Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard. It wasn’t long before Hollywood beckoned. After all, Claudia had all the necessary qualifications. As The Guardian observed in its 11 September 2011 edition:

A generation of postwar cinephiles rhapsodised over her earthy voluptuousness, her hourglass figure, her “bedroom eyes”, her cascading brunette tresses. She was the embodiment of postwar European glamour and was packaged as such, on screen and off. It’s almost like she had sexiness thrust upon her.

But there’s more to Claudia Cardinale than meets the eye…

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Claudia Cardinale poses for a portrait

Claudia Cardinale poses for a portrait

1959. Claudia Cardinale, at the outset of her career, poses for a portrait shot. She's up against a wall here – literally rather than metaphorically. There's a Cameraphoto agency stamp on the back of the print as well as a date (21 July 1959).

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Claudia Cardinale as Bianca, a prostitute, in Mauro Bolognini's film La viaccia (The Lovemakers)

Claudia Cardinale, promotional shot for La viaccia

1961. Claudia Cardinale as Bianca, a prostitute, in Mauro Bolognini's film La viaccia (The Lovemakers). The descriptive label on the back of the photo partially obscures a Pierluigi copyright notice. There's also a Cinémonde Archives stamp.

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Claudia Cardinale at a premiere

Claudia Cardinale at a premiere

1966. The premiere is likely of The Professionals in Monte Carlo on 28 November 1966. The print is stamped on the back by Reporters Associés (Paris) and International Magazine Service (Sweden).

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Claudia Cardinale head and shoulders with water drips

Claudia Cardinale

Mid-1960s. It looks like Claudia Cardinale has just got out of a swimming pool. There's nothing on the back of the print to indicate when or where this photo was taken. It has also proved impossible to track down online, hence the vague date.

Claudia Cardinale’s teenage turbulence

Her father, a railway worker, is a Sicilian emigrant to Tunisia. Her mother is French (or, according to some accounts, born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants). They make their home in Tunis and that’s where Claudia is born in 1938. She grows up with her three siblings, with French her first language (Tunisia is a French protectorate) but also a smattering of Tunisian Arabic and Sicilian (a different and distinct language from Italian).

Claudia Cardinale publicity shot for Il bell'Antonio
1959. Claudia Cardinale publicity shot by Elda Luxardo & Francesco Alessi for Il bell’Antonio. Read more.

Her first appearance on film is in the 1956 movie Anneaux d’or. Alongside her classmates all dressed in white, she stands on the shore watching a group of young men on a boat waving enthusiastically at them. She follows this up in 1957 with a minor role opposite Omar Sharif in Goha, a French-Tunisian movie nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. She also starts at university with a view to becoming a primary school teacher but fate intervenes. She remembers:

I was in the crowd at the Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia contest, watching all the girls onstage. Suddenly a man took me up there and put the ribbon on me! The prize was a trip to the Venice Film Festival. At the time the bikini was not common in Italy, and I arrived in a bikini with a djellaba robe on top. All the paparazzi were photographing me. I was with my mother, very young – we couldn’t understand what was happening! It was all because I had a bikini on. Then they asked me to do cinema and I said no. When I got on the plane home, there was a picture of me in the newspaper, and the headline was ‘The Girl Who Refuses Cinema’.

She does, however, accept a place at the Centro Sperimentale Cinematografico, Italy’s national film school in Rome. But it doesn’t work out. She’s there for little more than a month before, feeling homesick, struggling with the language and disenchanted with the Method approach to acting, she calls it a day. She makes her way back to Tunis, where something truly shocking happens:

One day as I was walking home from school in Tunis a man in a car grabbed me and raped me and I became pregnant. After that my mother and my sister stayed close to me. I gave birth in London, because in those days it would have been a scandal. We pretended that my son was my little brother. I didn’t want to become an actress; I did it so I could be independent.

1961. Claudia Cardinale. Photo by Angelo Frontoni.

Meanwhile, for the Italian cinema world, out of sight has not meant out of mind. Stories continue to appear in magazines about the girl who rejected stardom to be with her family. Offers continue to roll in. Finally, depressed and at her wits’ end, she signs a long-term contract with Vides Films, a production company set up by Franco Cristaldi. It is he who sends her to London to keep her pregnancy away from the prying eyes of the Italian press. Her son Patrick is then placed in the care of nuns in Italy. When he gets to four and a half, he’s transferred to Tunis to be looked after by Claudia’s parents. The story is that he’s Claudia’s little brother.

The Vides contract turns out to be a double-edged sword. It gets Claudia out of her predicament and will be the making of her professionally, but financially it will prove to be a disaster, she later tells Variety.

Well, Cristaldi was the best producer in Europe and thanks to him I made lots of great movies. But the problem was that I was paid a monthly salary; I wasn’t paid per movie. I was just an employee, like an office worker. So when that contract ended I didn’t have a dime in the bank.

Cristaldi’s interest in Claudia turns out to be not just professional. He also becomes romantically involved, just as Carlo Ponti did with Sophia Loren. The couple get married in Las Vegas in 1966, but that’s in the future.

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i soliti ignoti

1. I soliti ignoti

1958. A scene featuring Claudia Cardinale in one of her earliest roles (Italian, no subtitles but you'll have no problem getting the gist of what's going on).

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il bell'antonio

2. Il bell’Antonio

1960. The original Italian trailer without subtitles. But you don't need to understand the words to grasp the emoting that's much in evidence.

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rocco e i suoi fratelli

3. Rocco e i suoi fratelli

1960. The official trailer for the newly restored version. Claudia hardly gets a look-in but you'll catch a glimpse of a masterpiece.

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la ragazza con la valigia

4. La ragazza con la valigia

1961. A charming collage of clips from the movie with a superimposed soundtrack.

Claudia’s early films

With her son taken care of, Claudia returns to Italy so that Cristaldi can get her career up and running. She faces an immediate challenge: her Italian is little more than rudimentary and she speaks it with a French accent. What’s more, her slightly husky voice is regarded as not ideal by directors. So in most of her early films, Claudia’s voice is dubbed.

I didn’t speak a word of Italian. In my first movies everyone was shouting and I couldn’t understand anything. Then I had a small part in a Visconti film [Rocco e i suoi fratelli, 1960], in a very violent fight scene. Visconti took a megaphone and said, ‘Don’t kill my la Cardinale!’ I realised, my God, he’s noticed me!

Still, that’s a side issue for Cristaldi; he has big plans for her. Europe’s leading sex symbol of the moment is Brigitte Bardot – BB as she’s known to her fans. Claudia is to be Italy’s riposte. In a memorable one-liner, Bardot observes: “After ‘BB’ comes ‘CC’, no?” It could have turned into a fierce rivalry, but Claudia’s not in the mood to be competitive:

I was a fan of Brigitte Bardot. Who could not be? When I was young she was my idol. I loved her elegance and her natural power. She was unique.

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Claudia Cardinale looks at herself in the mirror

Claudia Cardinale looks at herself in the mirror

1961. Claudia perfects her look prior to strutting her stuff, and the set-up gives her just about every angle. That's all I know about this shot other than that there is an International Magazine Service copyright notice dated 18 December 1961 on the back of the print.

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Claudia Cardinale at the premiere of Les Lions Sont Lachés

Claudia Cardinale at the premiere of Les Lions Sont Lachés

1961. The cinema marquee in the background suggests that the occasion is the premiere of Les Lions Sont Lachés, a film in which Claudia Cardinale stars opposite Henri Verneuil. You can find out more about the paparazzi here. The back of the print is stamped by Europress and Publi-Press. The latter includes the name "H. Havrenne", who presumably is the photographer.

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Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot at an awards ceremony

Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot at an awards ceremony

1961. On the back of the print are Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service copyright notices, the latter dated 21 December 1961. The photo was likely taken at the David di Donatello Awards held on 30 July that year by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano. Brigitte Bardot was Best Foreign Actress and Claudia Cardinale received a Special David for her performance in La ragazza con la valigia.

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Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot slug it out in a scene from Les Pétroleuses

Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot go for each other

1971. Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot slug it out in a scene from Les Pétroleuses (The Legend of Frenchie King). As well as an International Magazine Service copyright notice, there's a photographer's stamp on the back of the photo. Photo by Terry O'Neill.

The two sex symbols eventually slug it out in a hammy cat fight in a scene in Les Pétroleuses (The Legend of Frenchie King, 1971), a French spoof Western. 

Back in 1958, Claudia’s first movie turns out to be something of an international hit – I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), a black comedy about an inept gang of thieves. She plays Carmelina, the young sister of one of the gang members, kept under lock and key lest she lose her virginity before she gets married. This is one of the films in which Claudia’s voice is dubbed, a topic on which director Mario Monicelli’s comments are revealing:

First of all because in Italy we often shoot with actors who are not professional. For example the guy who plays the Sicilian, the jealous brother Ferribotte, was not an actor. He was a dishwasher in a restaurant I would frequent. The guy who plays Capannelle, the sporty guy, wasn’t an actor either. I think he was a bricklayer. Of course Cardinale wasn’t an actress then either. But this way of shooting films was quite common in Italy, to use actors taken from the street. 

Cristaldi proves to be an astute manager and lands his protégé roles in a series of well regarded movies including Un maledetto imbroglio (The Facts of a Murder, 1958), Il bell’Antonio (Handsome Antonio, 1960) and La ragazza con la valigia (Girl with a Suitcase, 1961). LIFE magazine (29 September 1961 issue) reports that La ragazza “provides the first starring role for Claudia Cardinale, who at 22 is not yet much of an actress – but much of a delicious dish.” It fails to notice that Claudia takes acting seriously and though marketed as a sex symbol, doesn’t drink or smoke or have romances with her leading men: “I never made sexy things in my films. It is so stupid all this sex talk.” Well, yes and no…

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A seamstress makes a final adjustment to the bow on the gown Claudia Cardinale is about to model

Claudia Cardinale at Nina Ricci, Paris

1962. On the back of the photo, which is printed on Paris Match Marie Claire paper, is an International Magazine Service copyright notice dated 28 February 1962. On 10 February that year Claudia Cardinale worked as a model at Nina Ricci’s fashion house in Paris according to Getty Images. Here, a seamstress makes a final adjustment to the bow.

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Claudia Cardinale admires herself in the mirror while a seamstress adjusts her gown

Claudia Cardinale at Nina Ricci, Paris

1962. On the back of the photo are copyright notices for Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 1 March 1962. On 10 February that year Claudia Cardinale worked as a model at Nina Ricci’s fashion house in Paris. Here a seamstress is hard at work while Claudia admires herself in the mirror.

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Claudia Cardinale surrounded by Nina Ricci staff preparing her for a fashion show

Claudia Cardinale at Nina Ricci, Paris

1962. On the back of the photo are copyright notices for Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 1 March 1962. On 10 February that year Claudia Cardinale worked as a model at Nina Ricci’s fashion house in Paris. Here she is surrounded by staff preparing her for the show.

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Claudia Cardinale models a gown and matching shawl by Nina Ricci

Claudia Cardinale at Nina Ricci, Paris

1962. On the back of the photo are copyright notices for Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 28 February 1962. On 10 February that year Claudia Cardinale worked as a model at Nina Ricci’s fashion house in Paris. Here she's made it out of the dressing room and smiles at the photographer as the invited audience look on.

A year of contrasts and achievement

1963 is the year that Claudia Cardinale stakes her claim for a place in the movie pantheon. That year she works simultaneously with Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, and what a contrast they prove to be:

Visconti, precise, meticulous as if we were in the theatre, spoke to me in French and wanted me brunette with long hair. Fellini, messy and without a script, spoke to me in Italian and wanted me blonde.

Mid-1960s. Claudia Cardinale poses opposite a wind machine.

Luchino Visconti’s fabulous historical epic, Il gattopardo (The Leopard) tells the story of a fading aristocratic way of life. It is set at the beginning of the 1860s when Garibaldi’s landing in Sicily portends the unification and modernisation of Italy. Claudia, at her most radiant, stars alongside Burt Lancaster (cast against type and dubbed into Italian and absolutely magnificent) and Alain Delon. She says:

I was lucky to have spent so much time with Visconti. We were always together, I was always at his house, we went away together, we watched the San Remo festival together. … Before filming started we did all the rehearsals, with all the cast, around a table. It all had to be perfect. … But that dress, my God! Everything was antique. When I finished the movie, I had blood all round my waist. Visconti said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The film combines superb acting with sumptuous period sets and stunning photography and concludes with a wonderful 45-minute ball scene that apparently takes two weeks to put together. It goes on to win the 1963 Palme d’Or at Cannes as well as achieving commercial success in Europe. Unfortunately the version released in the US is horribly hacked about, poorly dubbed and transferred to an inferior print that dulls its colours. No wonder it sinks without trace. So, if you’re going to watch The Leopard, and you should, make sure you have the restored uncut version.

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leopard trailer

Il gattopardo (The Leopard)

The US trailer, dubbed of course, marketing the movie as a latter-day Gone with Wind, introduced by Burt Lancaster.

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leopard dance scene

Il gattopardo (The Leopard)

Part of the final act of the film, Don Fabrizio’s (Burt Lancaster) unbearably poignant dance with Angelica (Claudia Cardinale).

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otto bfi trailer

Otto e mezzo (8½)

A UK trailer released by the British Film Institute for a new restored version of the film.

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otto claudia

Otto e mezzo (8½)

A collage of clips, all featuring Claudia Cardinale – ravishing but no dialogue.

The intellectual rigour of Il gattopardo is in stark contrast to Otto e mezzo’s (8½) visually expressed emotions. 

In Otto e mezzo, Marcello Mastroianni is Guido Anselmi, a fêted film director, all set to make another box-office hit except for one thing – he doesn’t have a plot. Guido is, to all intents and purposes, Fellini himself and the film, morphing between reality and fantasy, is told from the director’s perspective. Claudia Cardinale plays herself, who also happens to be Guido’s ideal woman – in his imagination, that is. Real life’s another matter. Ms Cardinale has fond memories of Fellini:

Mid-1960s. Claudia Cardinale inspects her makeup.

He was a very funny man. He would pick me up in the car to take me to the set. … He would go down on his knees for me, he adored me, he got angry if he didn’t think I was eating enough. He used to say to me: “You belong to Africa, to the Earth. That’s why you’re my muse.”

He made me feel the centre of the Earth, the most beautiful, the most important. I truly miss him, his sweetness, tenderness, his thin voice even. Acting for him was like an event, there was no script, the set was noisy, it was chaotic, anarchy reigned, yet he was able to isolate himself and get on with the job. You thought you were doing everything spontaneously, any which way you pleased, but at the end of the day you’d done exactly what he had in mind. … With Federico, it was all improvisation.

Otto e mezzo goes on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and is now considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films of all time. As for Claudia, in 1963, she appears on the covers of over 250 European magazines and fan letters pour through her (agent’s) letterbox at the rate of over a thousand a month, including hundreds of marriage proposals. In spite of which, she remains modest about her talent and aware that the careers of movie stars are inherently precarious.

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Luchino Visconti directing Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale

Luchino Visconti directing Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale

1963. Luchino Visconti, an obsessional perfectionist by all accounts, arranges Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale before shooting a scene for Il gattopardo. On the back of the print is an International Magazine Service copyright notice dated 15 July 1963.

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Claudia Cardinale with the screenplay of The Leopard

Claudia Cardinale with the screenplay of The Leopard

1963. Claudia Cardinale sits outside with the screenplay of The Leopard – interesting that it appears to be an English version. The photo was likely taken in the garden of the Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi in Palermo, where much of the shooting took place.

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Claudia Cardinale signing autographs

Claudia Cardinale signs autographs

1963. Claudia Cardinale in the gardens of Palermo's Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi while shooting Il gattopardo. Hands stretch through the palace gates in search of autographs and the actress responds. Photo by Patrice Habans.

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Claudia Cardinale filming a scene for Otto e mezzo

Claudia Cardinale films Otto e mezzo

1963. Claudia Cardinale films a somewhat surreal scene for Federico Fellini's masterpiece, Otto e mezzo.

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Two dressers fasten Claudia Cardinale into a period gown

Claudia Cardinale dresses up

1963. On the back of this publicity shot for Il gattopardo featuring Claudia Cardinale is stamped a quite wonderful coat of arms featuring a leopard. There are also stamps from Pathé-Titanus-20th Century Fox and Imapress and a printed caption (the original is in French):

Claudia CARDINALE tries the dresses she will wear in “THE LEOPARD", a film directed by Luchino VISCONTI and based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel. The fitting session lasted eight hours. She was surprised that after standing for such a long time, she felt a little tired. But everyone knows that no professional model accepts this type of work for more than four hours.

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Claudia Cardinale being laced up by her dresser on the set of Il gattopardo

Claudia Cardinale being laced up by her dresser

1963. Claudia Cardinale, preparing to shoot a scene for Il gattopardo, puts on a brave face as her dresser laces her up. To get that period hourglass figure requires a viciously constrictive corset and the experience sticks in Claudia's mind: "When I finished the movie, I had blood all round my waist."

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Contact sheet, Il gattopardo

Contact sheet, Il gattopardo

1963. A contact sheet containing shots taken on the set of Il gattopardo. Featured are behind-the-scenes personnel as well as Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale.

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Federico Fellini and Claudia Cardinale on the set of Otto e mezzo

Federico Fellini and Claudia Cardinale on the set of Otto e mezzo

1963. Claudia Cardinale describes Federico Fellini as "a very funny man." Here he shares a joke with her and she's clearly very relaxed and enjoying herself. On the back of the print are copyright notices for Agence de Presse Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 17 June 1963.

Once upon a time in Hollywood

It would be surprising had the Hollywood studios not wanted to get in on the action. This puts Claudia (or more likely Cristaldi) in the driving seat when it comes to negotiating contracts:

My main advantage was that I didn’t ask to go to Hollywood, they called me. In those days whenever a new star caught their attention, the Hollywood studios had to have him or her, they tried to monopolise all the stars. They tied you down with a contract and in a way destroyed your career. I tried to defend myself. For instance I refused an exclusive contract with Universal and only signed one contract at a time and managed to survive.

Her debut is in Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther (1963), a slapstick comedy starring David Niven as a jewel thief and Peter Sellers as an inept detective. Claudia is an exotic princess. Other movies she makes during her stint in Hollywood showcase her versatility. They include Circus World (1964, a drama), Blindfold (1965, a romantic comedy) and The Professionals (1966, a Western).

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Claudia Cardinale surrounded by photographs of herself

Claudia Cardinale surrounded by photographs of herself

1962. Claudia Cardinale beams at the camera, as well she may. On the back of the print is a copyright notice for Guglielmo Coluzzi. He has three films to his credit as a stills photographer on IMDb but he seems to have worked also as a paparazzo. You can find a selection of his work at Rome's il museo del louvre.

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Claudia Cardinale posing for Franco Rossi

Claudia Cardinale posing for Franco Rossi

1967. A caption (translated from the original French) on the back of the print outlines what’s going on in Claudia’s life:

Claudia Cardinale has barely returned from America after completing her role in the film "The Professionals" with Burt Lancaster. She is due in Paris in a few days to make agreements with producer Marcel Pagnol about the film "The Baker's Wife" alongside Zero Mostel. Meanwhile, Claudia is dubbing her film "A Rose for All" (with her in the photo is director Franco Rossi). She has also made a lot of purchases because she is finishing furnishing her new house on Via Flaminia.

It looks like La Femme du Boulanger didn’t go into production. According to IMDb, Franco Rossi’s film, A Rose for All (Una rosa per tutti), was released in the US in 1967 as Every Man’s Woman. There are agency stamps on the back of the print for Pierluigi, Marie Claire and APIS.

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Claudia Cardinale poses for a girl with a camera

Claudia Cardinale poses for a girl with a camera

1965. Claudia Cardinale poses for a girl with a camera, and a pretty meaningful one at that. The identity of the girl behind the camera is a mystery, but the photographer responsible for this shot is identified on the back of the print as Araldo De Crollalanza. (There is also an Ifot International Foto Service stamp.) Unfortunately, there's almost no information about Araldo De Crollalanza online, plus searches tend to throw of a Fascist politician with the same name.

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Claudia Cardinale and Philip Dunne looking through a camera on the set of Blindfold

Claudia Cardinale and Philip Dunne on the set of Blindfold

1965. A caption on the back of the photo sets the scene:

CAMERA EYE
Director Philip Dunne and Italy’s most exciting new star Claudia Cardinale, look through the camera on the set of “Blindfold,” a Universal-Seven Pictures’ suspense comedy in which Miss Cardinale makes her Hollywood film debut opposite Rock Hudson.

Claudia and Rock will go on to become close friends.

But Claudia, no fool and increasingly independent-minded, recognises the dangers as well as the advantages that working in Hollywood entails. Her thinking is spelled out in an article in the 8 July 1966 issue of LIFE magazine headlined Claudia Cardinale, a wary beauty, is afraid Hollywood will ruin her:

Claudia Cardinale has a problem. … Her problem is, now that she has finally agreed to work in Hollywood, she is afraid she will be over-glamorized and exploited as Sophia [Loren] was. Her first Hollywood movie, the recent Blindfold, confirms Claudia’s worst fears. And she has two more coming up soon. Between Hollywood chores, she rushes away to make films in Italy, Spain, Brazil, anywhere but Hollywood. It is a strenuous way to conduct a career, but Claudia, who has won several top acting awards, is trying to grow into a better actress. She gets paid less in Europe. “If you have to give up the money, give it up, she insists. I do not want to become a cliché.”

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pink panther excerpt

1. The Pink Panther

1963. Claudia Cardinale getting plastered and flirting with David Niven – a lovely combination of innocence and seduction.

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pink panther interview

2. The Pink Panther

Claudia Cardinale reminiscing (in French with subtitles) about The Pink Panther and other films, illustrated with video clips.

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once upon a time trailer

3. Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. The original trailer in high definition of Once Upon a Time in the West directed by Sergio Leone and starring Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale.

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once upon a time late scene

4. Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. A farewell scene, close to the end of the movie, where the close-ups, the pacing and the soundtrack are just perfect.

After a few years, she does indeed move back permanently to Europe. More significant than any of her Hollywood movies is the spaghetti western in which she subsequently stars: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Although it proves popular with neither critics nor audiences on its release, it will become a cult classic. And once again, Claudia Cardinale offers insights into what it’s like working, in this case, with director Sergio Leone and co-stars Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda:

I was the only woman in that movie! The thing is … I love music. And that was the first time I worked on a film where the music was composed [by Ennio Morricone] before the cameras started rolling. So before shooting my scenes, Sergio would play the music … which really helped me get into the part. … On set, Charlie Bronson never talked to anybody. And Henry Fonda, we started shooting that love scene in the hammock and he told me he’d never done a love scene before. … It was difficult. His wife was sitting next to the camera, staring at me the whole time.

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Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Storyline. Once Upon a Time in the West is the story of a woman thrust into a world where threat and violence are everywhere. The three main male protagonists are played by Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Henry Fonda.

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Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Jill. Claudia Cardinale plays Jill McBain, a former New Orleans prostitute. In spite of that, she turns out to be the moral force at the heart of the movie. She’s a strong woman who sticks to her principles and refuses to be intimidated. We see much of the film through her eyes.

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Sergio Leone photographs Claudia Cardinale

Sergio Leone photographs Claudia Cardinale

1968. Shooting. Once Upon a Time in the West is a spaghetti western. Other than a few scenes in Utah’s Monument Valley, the outdoor action was filmed in Spain, while the indoor scenes were shot at Cinecittà.

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Claudia Cardinale with members of the crew of Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale and followers on the set of Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Directorial style. The film has a very distinctive style. Tight close-ups of faces contrast with vast panoramas, the oh-so-slow pacing is interrupted by explosions of violence, music plays a vital role in setting the mood but much of the soundtrack relies on natural sounds. Photo by Angelo Frontoni.

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Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards in Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Soundtrack. One of the film’s most celebrated aspects is the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Each of the characters is given their own musical leitmotif, and there’s also one for the spirit of the American West. The haunting wordless vocals for Claudia Cardinale’s character, Jill, are sung by Edda Dell’Orso.

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Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Claudia. As Jill, Claudia Cardinale is under the spotlight as, to all intents and purposes, she plays the only female character. She rises to the challenge by managing to convey a gamut of emotions including loss, disappointment, regret, determination and courage. Photo by Pietro Pascuttini.

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Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Dubbing. When filming was finished, Once Upon a Time in the West was dubbed into several languages, including Italian, French, German, Spanish and English. In the English version, Claudia Cardinale was dubbed by actress Joyce Gordon.

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Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West

1968. Title and theme. The original Italian title, C’era una volta il West, correctly translates as Once Upon a Time There Was a West. That’s important. The film is not so much about a story that takes place in the American West as it is about a mythical West and how it came to an end with the arrival of capitalism (the railway) and female values (Jill).

Independence and a new direction

Claudia Cardinale married Franco Cristaldi in 1966 but she leaves him to marry film director Pasquale Squitieri in 1975. At the same time she terminates her contract with Vides Films. Unsurprisingly, this impacts her professional as well as her personal life:

Well, it was a shock. Meeting Pasquale I interrupted a system that was built with and around me. Cristaldi was a very important producer and nobody wanted to go against him, nobody wanted to oppose him. So I don’t know if it was he who wanted it or if it was an involuntary consequence, but certainly both Pasquale and I found obstacles in the work. And this is a certain fact.

1965. Claudia Cardinale with Luchino Visconti on the set of Sandra.

The good news is that Claudia’s career is no longer being managed by someone else. She can do as she chooses – not that she’s been exactly passive up to now. Still:

For more than 15 years, I was considered and treated like an object or a project to be manufactured and merchandised. For much of my adult life, I was someone else’s creation – they decided what movies I should play in, what clothes to wear, how to have my hair done and even what friends to see. It was as if I were something operated by remote control.

She believes that “Women, after all, are capable of more in life than making love – but it is very difficult to find intelligent parts for women in films.” She continues to be busy but in Cristaldi’s absence, judging by reviews, the quality of the films in which she stars does drop off to an extent.

Her favourite and most acclaimed movie from the 1980s is Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982). Hertzog’s approach to film-making is both uncompromising and notorious in the industry. He disregards storyboards, emphasises improvisation, and puts his cast and crew into situations like those of the characters in the film.

Set in the early 20th century, the plot of Fitzcarraldo revolves around an Irishman who wants to build the largest opera house in the world in the middle of the Amazon jungle. The making of the movie is the subject of a feature-length documentary – Burden of Dreams (1982). Claudia remembers it as a pretty surreal experience:

But the greatest adventure was with Werner Herzog, making Fitzcarraldo in Peru. I don’t know how I survived! We were in the middle of the jungle. Wild animals. You didn’t know what to eat. All the Indians were naked. My costume was this white dress, and they thought I was a goddess, so I had to be on set all the time otherwise the Indians would leave. When we finished, they came to the airport and brought me gifts. I was crying so much! I love Werner Herzog, but for some of the crew, the experience was so powerful they actually went insane. … We worked in extreme conditions, it was unbearably hot, Jason Robards at some point climbed up a tree and demanded a New York steak to come down. Eventually he was replaced by Klaus Kinski.

Claudia plays Kinski’s lover, a successful brothel-keeper who finances his demented project. Vincent Canby of The New York Times points out that although she doesn’t have much time on screen, she sets the movie’s comic tone and manages to turn Kinski into a “genuinely charming screen presence,” something he’s not exactly noted for. Herzog’s diary seems to confirm this. The director observes that Claudia Cardinale is an antidote to her co-star’s megalomania, “a great help because she is such a good sport, a real trouper, and has a special radiance before the camera. In her presence, [Kinski] usually acts like a gentleman.”

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fitzcarraldo trailer

1. Fitzcarraldo

The original trailer in high definition of Fitzcarraldo directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy and Miguel Ángel Fuentes.

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cardinale herzog conversation

2. Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo notebook

Claudia Cardinale in conversation with Werner Herzog about the notebook he kept while making Fitzcarraldo.

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burden of dreams

3. Burden of Dreams

A minute and a half from Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's feature-length documentary of the tumultuous production of Fitzcarraldo.

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kermode on fitzcarraldo

4. Mark Kermode reviews Fitzcarraldo

A couple of minutes that focus as much on the story behind the film as on the film itself.

Fitzcarraldo wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Claudia Cardinale’s ongoing career and reflections

Claudia Cardinale just keeps going. By 2022 she has 128 credits as a movie actress on IMDb. This in spite of embarking on a career in the theatre in 2000, age 62. Reflecting on her choices and her experience, she says:

As a teenager I was wild, a bit crazy, a tomboy, I got into fistfights with boys just to show them girls can be stronger than them. I have always accepted challenges. When I was young, I remember catching the train after it had pulled out, I used to run and jump on even though I was on the platform, perfectly in time for the departure, just to show I could do it. This attitude also helped me on set when I found myself the only woman surrounded by men, I wasn’t intimidated, I felt able to compete with them. My philosophy of life has always been: If you want, you can. You can’t be weak if you want to do this job. … If you’re not strong, you lose your personality. … You play the role in front of the camera but you have to know who you are afterwards. Inner strength is the most important.

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Claudia Cardinale at her dressing table

Claudia Cardinale at her dressing table

1962. The expression on Claudia Cardinale's face suggests that she's a lot of fun. Love the caricatures of herself flanking the mirror. The photo is printed on Paris Match Marie Claire paper and has an International Magazine Service copyright stamp on the back dated 5 March 1962.

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Claudia Cardinale posing for Franco Rossi

Claudia Cardinale posing for Franco Rossi

1967. A caption (translated from the original French) on the back of the print outlines what’s going on in Claudia’s life:

Claudia Cardinale has barely returned from America after completing her role in the film "The Professionals" with Burt Lancaster. She is due in Paris in a few days to make agreements with producer Marcel Pagnol about the film "The Baker's Wife" alongside Zero Mostel. Meanwhile, Claudia is dubbing her film "A Rose for All" (with her in the photo is director Franco Rossi). She has also made a lot of purchases because she is finishing furnishing her new house on Via Flaminia.

It looks like La Femme du Boulanger didn’t go into production. According to IMDb, Franco Rossi’s film, A Rose for All (Una rosa per tutti), was released in the US in 1967 as Every Man’s Woman. There are agency stamps on the back of the print for Pierluigi, Marie Claire and APIS.

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Claudia Cardinale larking about with Sammy Davis Jr

Claudia Cardinale larking about with Sammy Davis Jr

Around 1963. There's no information at all on this photo or its companion. The subject and style suggest they were taken in Claudia's early days in the US. She and Sammy do seem to be having a rare old time. In both shots, the photographer has ensured that she doesn't look taller than him (Sammy was 5 foot 6 inches tall). Here, he has him crouching and peeping out from behind her.

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Claudia Cardinale larking about with Sammy Davis Jr

Claudia Cardinale larking about with Sammy Davis Jr

Around 1963. There's no information at all on this photo or its companion. The subject and style suggest they were taken in Claudia's early days in the US. She and Sammy do seem to be having a rare old time. In both shots, the photographer has ensured that she doesn't look taller than him (Sammy was 5 foot 6 inches tall). Here, he has him on a stool.

One aspect of that is her determination not to get involved with her co-stars. How else could she possibly reject the advances of the likes of Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo?

Yes, they courted me, I confess. But I have always wanted to separate the life of an actress from my private one. So I didn’t let myself be seduced. We were friends, we joked, but I didn’t go further also because I knew how much the stories were embroidered on the sets.

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Claudia Cardinale descending a staircase

Claudia Cardinale descending a staircase

1961. That's a very stylish window. Not sure the carpet is the perfect match. There are agency stamps on the back of the print for Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 21 August 1961.

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Claudia Cardinale posing in a doorway

Claudia Cardinale posing in a doorway

1961. This must be part of the same shoot as the staircase photo. Not only is Claudia wearing the same shift dress. There are the same agency stamps on the back of the print for Agence Dalmas and International Magazine Service, the latter dated 21 August 1961.

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Claudia Cardinale in a baroque setting

Claudia Cardinale in a baroque setting

Around 1961. The photographer has signed the back of the print and identified the location as Paris. Photo by Peter Basch.

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Claudia Cardinale posing on a gangway

Claudia Cardinale posing on a gangway

1968. Printed on Paris-Match Marie Claire paper and stamped in ink on the reverse ‘COPYRIGHT / INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE / SERVICE (IMS) / 7 DEC 1968 / TORSGAT. 21 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN’. Also annotated in pencil ‘PM 923 C. Cardinale’.

But she makes an exception for Rock Hudson:

We were very close. At that time in America if it was known that you were gay you could not work in Hollywood. So we pretended to be a couple. Always arm in arm around town. Rock had lunch and dinner at my place a lot. I stayed close to him to the very end.

He in turn is protective of Claudia, aware of her discomfort in the US.

1964. Claudia Cardinale at the Gala of the Union of Artists at Winter Circus, Paris. Photo by Philippe Le Tellier.

Claudia’s awards and achievements

Claudia Cardinale has won numerous awards including a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 1993 Venice Film Festival and a Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival. Between those two in 1999 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in France and later, in 2001 and 2002, corresponding honours in Portugal and Italy.

In March 2000 she became UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the defence of women’s rights.

Want to know more about Claudia Cardinale?

The quotes above are from various sources. Sometimes I’ve combined quotes from different sources because they’re on the same topic. In these cases I’ve used an ellipsis (…) to separate them.

The Continental Actress by Kerry Segrave and Linda Martin has a chapter on Claudia Cardinale. Online sources include:

  • Claudia Cardinale’s website – official but limited
  • Wikipedia – much more detailed, complete with citations
  • IMDb – go-to website for Claudia’s filmography
  • TCM – worth a visit but not available in all countries.

Also online, there are articles about and interviews with Claudia in the Los Angeles Times, The Local, Breaking Latest News, Italy magazine, Euronews, The Guardian, Variety, Dazed and Vanity Fair.

Other topics you might be interested in…

Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti – a sad childhood, a glittering career and a bitter old age
Princess Ira von Fürstenberg – celeb, fashion model, movie star
Tazio Secchiaroli – more than a paparazzo
Yvonne Furneaux as Emma in La Dolce Vita
Yvonne Furneaux – glamorous English export

Filed Under: Films, Stars Tagged With: 8½, Alain Delon, Anneaux d'or, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Blake Edwards, Blindfold, Brigitte Bardot, Burden of Dreams, Cannes Film Festival, Charles Bronson, Circus World, Claudia Cardinale, Ennio Morricone, Federico Fellini, Fitzcarraldo, Franco Cristaldi, Girl with a Suitcase, Goha, Handsome Antonio, Henry Fonda, I soliti ignoti, Il bell’Antonio, Il gattopardo, Jason Robards, Klaus Kinski, La ragazza con la valigia, Luchino Visconti, Marcello Mastroianni, Mario Monicelli, Once Upon a Time in the West, Otto e mezzo, Palme d’Or, Pasquale Squitieri, Rocco and his Brothers, Rocco e i suoi fratelli, Rock Hudson, Sergio Leone, The Facts of a Murder, The Leopard, The Pink Panther, The Professionals, Un maledetto imbroglio, UNESCO, Venice Film Festival, Vides Films, Werner Herzog

Ewa Aulin – sex and education

Ewa Aulin’s eyebrow-raising career took her from sex star to school teacher. She’s known first and foremost as the eponymous heroine of Candy – a film so excruciatingly bad that it has acquired cult status with a small band of fans.

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Britt Ekland seated in an armchair in her garden in Rome

Britt Ekland

Around 1966. Like her compatriot Ewa Aulin, Britt Ekland is known as a sex symbol and for her roles in horror movies, of which the most celebrated is The Wicker Man (1973). Her profile is further boosted during the sixties by her marriage to Peter Sellers. According to the handwritten annotation on the back of this photo, it is taken in the garden of Britt's home in Rome. There is also a Team Press Services stamp. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ingrid Thulin

Ingrid Thulin

Around 1965. Ingrid Thulin is of an earlier generation than Ewa Aulin and is also an altogether more serious actress, with 68 credits on IMDb. She is one of Ingmar Bergman's favourite actresses as well as appearing in films by Alain Resnais and Luchino Visconti – The Damned (1969). There is an International Magazine Service stamp on the back of the photo. Photo by Franco Pinna.

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Pia Degermark

Pia Degermark

1969. Outside her native Sweden, Pia Degermark is known primarily for her role in Elvira Madigan (1967), for which she wins the Award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

Pia Degermark, a 19 year old Swedish beauty, is currently starring with Chris Jones in the tender, romantic drama “Brief Season” directed by Renato Castellani and produced by Dino De Laurentiis for Columbia Pictures. Pia reached stardom following her success in the Swedish film “Elvira Madigan” directed by Bo Widerberg.

The back of the photo has a Pierluigi agency stamp. Photo by Emilio Lari.

Ewa was one of a number of actresses to emerge from Sweden to become stars on the 1960s European-movie scene. Her compatriots included Anita Ekberg, Anna Karina, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann and Pia Degermark.

Ewa herself appeared in 17 films between 1965 and 1973. But Candy, her fifth, was the one.

Ewa Aulin as Candy
1968. Ewa Aulin as Candy. Read more.

Ewa Aulin is Candy

The first we hear of Candy and Ewa in the UK press is in the 27 November 1967 edition of the Daily Mirror:

THE girl who will have a film love affair with Beatle Ringo Starr was named last night. She is Ewa Aulin, an 18-year old Swedish blonde. Ewa, who was voted “Miss Teenager” in Hollywood last year, is to have the title part in “Candy” – Ringo’s first film without the other Beatles.

The movie is released in December 1968 in the US, and in the UK early the following year. The plot is neatly summarized in the 14 February 1969 edition of the Kensington Post:

“Candy” is the story of a beautiful young girl who can’t say no. She has a variety of sexual encounters with a number of bizarre characters including Marlon Brando as a guru, Richard Burton as a boozy Welsh poet, James Coburn as a surgeon, Walter Matthau as a super patriotic American Air Force general, Ringo Starr as a Mexican gardener, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson as a chauffeur and French singer Charles Aznavour as a burglar.

Forget the plot, that’s quite some cast!

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Ewa Aulin getting out of a Rolls Royce

Ewa Aulin in London

1969. The 14 February 1969 edition of the Kensington Post announces that:

“Candy” – the controversial film of the best-selling satire on the art of pornography by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg is to have its European premiere at the Odeon, Kensington, on Thursday, February 20. Guest of honour at the premiere will be Candy herself – 18-year-old Swedish actress Ewa Aulin who will arrive in a pink Rolls Royce.

There's an Araldo Di Crollalanza stamp on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin posing in a London street

Ewa Aulin in London

1969. It looks like Ewa Aulin goes on a photo shoot to promote the UK release of Candy. The London taxi in the background is unmistakable and her fur coat is pretty distinctive too. There are Araldo Di Crollalanza and PIP Photo stamps on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin feeding duck in London

Ewa Aulin in London

1969. Ewa Aulin may end up throwing food to the ducks, but she'll definitely have her audience eating out of her hand. The venue could be Kensington Palace Gardens. She's in London for the premiere of Candy at the Kensington Odeon. There are Araldo Di Crollalanza and PIP Photo stamps on the back of the photo.

The 19 February 1969 edition of the Daily Mirror has a lengthy review, the trajectory of which you can glean from this paragraph:

By the time 1969 staggers from the scene, the British Film Censor will have had to hack his way through a staggering assortment of movies from the downright illicit to the pantingly explicit. This may well be the year the screen caught fire.

Ewa Aulin by Emilio Lari
Around 1970. Ewa Aulin. Photo by Emilio Lari.

Stylistically, Candy is a pure late-sixties spoof with its demented plotline, frenetic pace and caricature characters. It’s utterly absurd and designed to shock – though 50 years on it comes across as just coy and silly. It’s a sex comedy with pretensions that looks backwards and forwards – 1969 is a pivotal year in terms of censorship.

Looking backwards, there’s more than one thread that connects Candy to Barbarella (1968), Roger Vadim’s outrageous sci-fi fantasy starring Jane Fonda. Terry Southern, co-author of the 1958 novel on which Candy is based, is also responsible for the screenplay for Barbarella (though it must said that Candy lacks Barbarella’s chic fantasy).What’s more, Christian Marquand, Candy’s director, starred in Vadim’s Et Dieu… créa la femme (1956), Brigitte Bardot’s breakthrough movie. Both Candy and Et Dieu… are preoccupied with sex, but it’s all very frothy and light-hearted.

Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie (1969), by contrast, is both experimental and transgressive. It’s the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to go on wide theatrical release in the US. And it ushers in the Golden Age of Porn – the era in which films such as Deep Throat (1972), The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) and The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) will gain a good deal of publicity, attract big audiences and even garner some critical approval. (The advent of the videocassette player, with its potential for private viewing, will spell the end of this particular era.)

More generally, Candy and Blue Movie are manifestations of the sexual revolution of the sixties in the US and western Europe. With “the pill” giving women a way to avoid pregnancy, sex has become more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of marriage (homosexuality is also coming out from the shadows, but that’s another story). And that in its turn is part of the counter culture – the social and political backlash against “the establishment”. But while Blue Movie has bona fide counter-culture credentials, it’s debatable whether the same is true of Candy, in spite of the pseudo-intellectual discussion in an article in the 3 October 1969 edition of the Marylebone Mercury:

Ewa Aulin at an event
Around 1969. Ewa Aulin at an event.

We spoke mainly of revolution, other films and the cultural scene in our McLuhanist age, but we did agree that Candy had been mistreated.
I asked Marquand if he would rather have stuck closer to the original ultra-erotic book.

“The formula of the book wasn’t so important to me because personally I’ve progressed beyond the erotic phase,” he said. “I don’t feel any repression about sex – just that it’s natural. …

“Of course. If sex were recognized as a means of free expression then I don’t see how on earth you could have eroticism. For me, eroticism is more of a game of mind than a game of body.

“So in Candy there isn’t such a thing as a game of mind. It’s very stylised. It’s there and she takes it for granted. The types she meets, remember, are schizophrenics and suffer from hang-ups.” …

The satire on American society is fairly pointed, but incidentally the sexual mores of civilisation generally are shown to be somewhat shaky. Candy acts as a catalyst-cum-confessor, a touchstone who reveals quite poignantly the ills of man.

It’s Marquand’s message, something he’s imposed on the Terry Southern-Mason Hoffenberg original sex-classic: erotic urges need to be liberated, repression causes capitalism – repression – perversions, America – perversion – schizophrenia.

This theme is, of course, in the mainstream of revolutionary doctrine, from Reich to Marcuse, that freedom of expression can only come about when we get rid of all sorts of repression, especially sexual repression. “I fight repression,” Marquand told me earnestly, “but I march with my movies.”

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ewa aulin candy tribute

1. She’s So Lovely – Ewa Aulin

A musical tribute to Candy released by Blackpool Records. If you want to watch Ewa in a plethora of predicaments, this is for you.

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candy clip

2. Ewa Aulin meets Marlon Brando

This ten-minute clip from toward the end of Candy captures its mayhem and madness, starting with a magic show and ending with a guru.

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ewa aulin making of candy

3. The making of Candy

Worth a watch in spite of the annoying Bobbie Wygant Archive credit plastered across the screen. Her male co-stars are clearly besotted with Ewa Aulin.

Ewa Aulin, movie star and teacher

Eva Aulin’s take on the movie is more straightforward:

Candy is a moral lesson about a pure, childlike girl who is taken advantage of by selfish, amoral people. She just wants to make people happy. If everyone were like Candy, the world would be a better place.

For her performance in the film, Ewa is nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. In the event, the winner is Olivia Hussey for her performance in Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.

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Ewa Aulin having fun

Ewa Aulin having fun

Around 1970. Ewa Aulin looks like she's letting her hair down, while her elderly companion is wrapped up in the dream world she's induced for him. There is a PIP Photos stamp on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin pulling her hair

Ewa Aulin pulling her hair

Around 1970. What has caught Ewa's attention? She definitely seems to be distracted by something as she pulls at her hair. There is a PIP Photos stamp on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin with a cute puppy

Ewa Aulin with a cute puppy

Around 1970. Ewa blows kisses at an adorable puppy, who looks all set to reciprocate. And who can blame him? There is a Globe Photos stamp on the back of the photo. Photo by Joel Elkins.

Ewa is, of course, a delight to behold – the phrase eye-candy inevitably springs to mind. Certainly no ice maiden, rather every inch a kooky baby doll. She’s ever so fetching with her short, slinky dresses and her long, blonde tresses. And, above all, her wide-eyed innocence.

It’s no surprise that her path to stardom has been via winning a couple of beauty pageants: Miss Teen Sweden in 1965 and Miss Teen International in Hollywood the following year. Immediately prior to Candy, Ewa starred alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant in two giallos: the pop art-style Col cuore in gola (With Heart in Mouth, 1967) and the avant-garde La morte ha fatto l’uovo (Death Laid an Egg, 1968).

While filming Candy, Ewa Aulin secretly marries British musician-turned-filmmaker John Shadow, who casts her in his one and only movie, Microscopic Liquid Subway to Oblivion (1970), which seems to have taken its cue from its title and pretty much disappeared without trace immediately after it’s made.

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Ewa Aulin relaxes

Ewa Aulin relaxes

Around 1970. It looks like Ewa's been caught relaxing on a building site, but perhaps it's just the set of her latest movie. There is an Interfoto Features stamp on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin shows off her coat

Ewa Aulin shows off her coat

Around 1970. Ewa Aulin does a twirl to show off her long, flared coat. It looks like she's in Italy, where most of the films in which she stars in the early-1970s are produced. There are Araldo di Crollalanza and Globe Photos stamps on the back of the photo.

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Ewa Aulin at a newspaper kiosk in France

Ewa Aulin in France

Around 1970. Ewa must be something of a linguist – she makes films in English and Italian as well as her native Swedish. And in this photo she appears to be reading a French journal. It looks like this is part of a publicity shoot rather than a paparazzi shot. There is a Globe Photos stamp on the back of the photo. Photo by Joel Elkins.

After Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), an unmemorable period comedy, and a handful of Italian giallos and sex comedies, Ewa Aulin has had enough of the movie business and, apparently her husband. The couple divorce in 1972, and soon after she embarks on a new life. In 1974 she marries Cesare Paladino, a builder, enrols at university and settles down to become a teacher and mother (she already has a son, Shawn, by John Shadow). One of her two daughters, Olivia Paladino, will become the partner of Giuseppe Conte, 58th prime minister of Italy.

On her Facebook page, Eva now describes herself as an artist.

Want to know more about Ewa Aulin?

Head for the usual suspects: Wikipedia and IMDb. If it’s pictures rather than information you’re after, take a look at Ewa Aulin’s Facebook page. There’s a full-length copy of Candy on YouTube but unfortunately the aspect ratio is wrong.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Sex and power – Nazism in 1970s cinema
The sixties – sex, drugs, rock and roll and a whole lot more
Barbara Stanwyck in The Two Mrs Carrolls
Unsafe sex – the starlet’s dilemma

Filed Under: Films, Stars Tagged With: Britt Ekland, Candy, Ewa Aulin, Ingrid Thulin, John Shadow, Pia Degermark

Claudine Auger – young, beautiful, trapped, could be dangerous

Claudine Auger makes an entrance
Around 1965. Claudine Auger makes an entrance.

“Young, beautiful, trapped, could be dangerous” is how the trailer of Thunderball introduced Claudine Auger to mainstream movie audiences.

A classically trained actress fluent in several languages like Yvonne Furneaux, but also a Miss World runner-up, she’s instantly recognisable for the mole she sports below her right lip. As Sophie Schulte-Hillen points out in The 9 Greatest Beauty Marks of All Time, From Cindy Crawford to Madonna, “The inexplicable magnetism of a well-placed beauty mark, of course, has been a phenomenon throughout history.”

Claudine Auger was the first French actress to be cast as a Bond girl, years ahead of Corinne Cléry (Moonraker, 1979), Carole Bouquet (For Your Eyes Only, 1981), Sophie Marceau (The World Is Not Enough, 1999), Eva Green (Casino Royale, 2006) and Léa Seydoux (Spectre, 2015).

Claudine’s career spanned almost four decades and, according to IMDb, encompassed 80 film and TV appearances. But Thunderball is what she’s remembered for.

Thunderball

Thunderball is based on a novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. We’ll let him introduce Domino, the character played by Claudine Auger in the movie version:

She had a gay, to-hell-with-you face that, Bond thought, would become animal in passion. In bed she would fight and bite and then suddenly melt into hot surrender. He could almost see the proud, sensual mouth bear away from the even white teeth in a snarl of desire and then, afterward, soften into a half pout of loving slavery. In profile, the eyes were charcoal slits … fierce and direct with a golden flicker in the dark brown hair that held much the same message as the mouth … a soft, muddled Brigitte Bardot haircut … the sunburn was not overdone … her breasts, high and riding and deeply V-ed.… The general impression, Bond decided, was of a willful, high-tempered, sensual girl…

So, gorgeous, wild and waiting to be tamed by the (implicitly) superior Bond. Pure, deranged sixties male fantasy. In your (wet) dreams, Mr Fleming.

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Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde

Faye Dunaway

1968. Faye Dunaway is the first actress to be offered the role of Domino. Instead she opts to star in Elliot Silverstein’s crime comedy The Happening (1967). Success for her...

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Raquel Welch posing on a diving board

Raquel Welch

1967. Raquel Welch is also a front runner for the role of Domino but she’s lured away to star in Twentieth Century Fox’s sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage (1966). Twentieth Century...

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Julie Christie seated on the ground in a chemise

Julie Christie

1965. Julie Christie has previously been in the running for the role of Honey Rider in Dr No but lost out to Ursula Andress. Her success in Billy Liar apparently...

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Luciana Paluzzi photographed by Angelo Frontoni

Luciana Paluzzi

Around 1965. Luciana Paluzzi is one of the bevy of fetching actresses who audition for the part of Domino in Thunderball. Although the role goes to Claudine Auger, Luciana is...

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Martine Beswick standing in a lake

Martine Beswick

Around 1966. Former Miss Jamaica, Martine Beswick is one of Raquel Welch’s co-stars in One Million Years B.C., for which this is probably a publicity shot. In Thunderball, she plays...

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Suzy Kendall, publicity shot for Fraulein Doktor

Suzy Kendall

1967. Though uncredited, Suzy Kendall plays the role of Prue, one of the casino patrons in Thunderball. She trained as a fashion designer and worked as a model to help...

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Domino is the most complex and demanding female role to date in a Bond movie. Needless to say, the part, which is central to the plot, requires an exceptionally beautiful and talented actress, and no doubt the production team has the time of their life initiating a worldwide talent search and auditioning candidates. They show admirable devotion to the job by considering 100, perhaps as many as 150 candidates according to Luciana Paluzzi.

Claudine Auger photographed by Peter Basch
Around 1965. Claudine Auger. Photo by Peter Basch.

First to be offered the role is Faye Dunaway, but on the advice of her agent she decides instead to accept the role of Sandy in Elliot Silverstein’s crime comedy The Happening (1967).

Next up is Raquel Welch. Not surprisingly, Harry Saltzman, founder of EON Productions, who own the film rights, can’t forget a photo of the bikini-clad actress that featured in the October 2, 1964 issue of LIFE magazine. She’s the first to be offered the role of Domino but there’s a problem. Richard Zanuck, one of Darryl Zanuck’s sons and studio head at Twentieth Century Fox, wants her for their upcoming sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage (1966). He knows Salzman’s partner, Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, and persuades him to release Raquel from her contract as a favour to him.

On paper, Julie Christie seems like a promising candidate but apparently she flunks her interview, turning up dishevelled and nervous; plus Albert Broccoli is disappointed that she doesn’t have bigger tits. Other shortlisted lovelies include Luciana Paluzzi, Yvonne Monlaur, Marisa Menzies, Gloria Paul and Maria Buccella.

So how does the relatively unknown Claudine Auger get involved? Putting together different versions of the story from different sources, this seems to be how things worked out…

She’s on holiday in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, at the same time as the crew who are preparing to film Thunderball. She enjoys swimming underwater and one day, by happy coincidence, she surfaces at the same time as and near to the film’s producer, Kevin McClory. He appreciates her potential and makes sure he has her contact details.

Claudine returns to Paris where she’s a member of the Théâtre National Populaire. As she explains to Photoplay magazine in 1965, she gets a call from London asking if she would like to audition for a role in Thunderball. The theatre director refuses to give her time off so she arranges a day-trip to London, enabling her to be back in Paris the same night. Result! Movie director Terence Young calls her a few days later to offer her the role. She has the blend of innocence and sex appeal he is looking for. Once again the theatre director proves intransigent. So Claudine ups sticks and heads off to join Thunderball’s cast and crew.

The 15 March 1965 edition of the Herald Express reports that:

Filming of 007’s latest tussle with the international crime syndicate Spectre began this month and after four weeks of interior work at Pinewood the 82-strong production unit will fly to Nassau by chartered aircraft. I gather that Nassau luxury hotels and beach clubs will figure prominently in the plot. So will 22-year-old auburn-haired Claudine Auger, Miss France of 1952–59, who is said to have learned excellent English when she was a teenage au pair girl in London.

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Claudine Auger poses on a diving board

Claudine Auger goes swimming

1965. Claudine poses on a diving board at a swimming bath. A man in the background admires the view. The back of the photo is annotated in pencil “CLAUDINE AUGER / FOR LIFE COVER FEATURE / STAR of BOND FILM.” Photo by Peter Basch.

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Claudine looking winsome

Claudine looks winsome

Claudine Auger gazes at the camera, hair tumbling fetchingly around her face. Note the cropping marks on this working print. Photo by Peter Basch.

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Claudine Auger wrapped in fur

Claudine Auger wrapped in fur

1965. Perching on a sofa, Claudine is very much the seductress. Later in life, she will have her distinctive beauty mark removed. A typed paper label on the back of the photo reads:

BOND-STUNNER…CLAUDINE AUGER
James Bond holds no terrors for this girl.
Please acknowledge: photograph by LOOMIS DEAN
CAMERA PRESS LONDON. 10155-9

Photo by Loomis Dean.

Originally, the idea has been for Domino to be Italian. Now the screenplay is modified to make her French and Claudine is given a series of English lessons to prepare her for her part. Well, that’s a waste of time. Although her English proves to be more than satisfactory, it’s subsequently decided that her voice is too low. So in the end her voice is dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl, who dubbed Ursula Andress’s character, Honey Rider, in Dr No.

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thunderball official trailer

1. Thunderball official trailer

A nice compilation of sixties graphics, action sequences and Bond girls shot through with Sean Connery’s 007 and John Barry’s soundtrack, this is impossible to resist.

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thunderball underwater + beach

2. Sean Connery and Claudine Auger underwater and on the beach

Quintessential Thunderball – romance underwater, drama on the beach and a cool one-liner to cap things off.

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thunderball casino

Behind-the-scenes footage of Thunderball’s casino scene

Beautiful people, high stakes and smoochy music make this sequence ever so sexy – just like Richard Avedon’s shoot at the Casino at Le Touquet.

In an interview in a December 1965 issue of the New York Daily News, Claudine talks about the extensive underwater shooting for the film:

…I was never frightened of it. I took to it like a fish. It’s beautiful down there and peaceful and I get a sense of freedom I don’t get on land or in the air. One has to be more careful skin diving in the Caribbean than in the Mediterranean because of sharks … close to shore there are lazy sharks and we were assured they wouldn’t attack us if we remained calm. Fortunately, I didn’t meet one to test my nerve.

Filming, especially around Nassau, is a joy, as Martine Beswick recalls:

The best of the best was at our disposal. I remember our dressing rooms when we were working on the streets for the carnival scenes –they rented a yacht on which we would go between takes. When we had to work on a beach, they would have tents, champagne would be there and the best of wine. That was Terence [Young], that was his style, that was the way things were done.

The rest is history. Claudine displays her charms in a succession of fetching bikinis, which she apparently helps to design. And Thunderball goes on to be the box office hit of 1965 as well as winning an Academy Award for its special effects.

Claudine Auger modelling an evening dress
Around 1958. Claudine Auger models an evening dress.

Claudine Auger pre-Thunderball

Claudine Auger is born in 1942 in German-occupied Paris. As she grows up, she experiences, first-hand, life in Paris after World War II, first at school, then at the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique, France’s national drama academy. There she learns to act, playing a variety of roles, her repertoire including classical plays by the likes of Racine and Molière.

Looking back in 1965 to those days, she remembers in an interview in the New York Journal-American that “When I was 13 I wasn’t very pretty. I was slim, how you say, like a matchstick…”

Claudine turns out to be a quick developer. In no time she becomes a model and in 1957 she’s named Miss Cinémonde by the movie magazine. In 1958, still just 16 years old, as Miss France she represents her country at the Miss World pageant and is voted runner up. It proves to be a turning point in her personal and professional lives, as she explains in an interview with an Associated Press journalist in 1966:

I had just won the ‘Miss France’ contest with all its publicity and one of the prizes was a role in one of Pierre’s pictures, it was love at first sight.

The movie in question is Christine, which stars Romy Schneider and Alain Delon. Claudine’s small part is uncredited. But it’s a start, and the following year she marries the film’s director, Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 25 years her senior. Apparently Claudine, like Domino, is partial to older men! He will go on to give her roles in several of his films, including a costume drama, Le Masque de fer (The Iron Mask, 1962), and an epic adventure, Kali Yug, La Dea Della Vendetta (The Vengeance of Kali, 1963).

But before then, her arthouse career begins and ends when she catches the eye of avant-garde film director Jean Cocteau, who casts her in the illustrious company of Yul Brynner, Charles Aznavour, Brigitte Bardot and Pablo Picasso in Le Testament D’Orphée (1960).

In all, she makes 15 film and TV appearances before Thunderball.

Claudine Auger post-Thunderball

Claudine hopes that Thunderball will enable her to break through into US movies. With that in mind she poses for a shoot in Playboy magazine and makes a guest appearance on US TV in a Bob Hope special. But it’s not to be. She fails to make an impact on Hollywood in spite of being in demand in Europe and the UK.

Building on her success in Thunderball, she appears in a number of adventure films. The plot of L’homme de Marrakech (1966) revolves around a heist. Triple Cross (1966) is a Word War II spy saga starring Christopher Plummer and Yul Brynner.

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Claudine Auger seated on a carved baroque chair

Claudine Auger inspired by Paco Rabanne

1966. Claudine’s earrings and dress look like they’re either Paco Rabanne originals or inspired by them. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

VITTORIO GASSMAN, MICKEY ROONEY...

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Claudine Auger in a floral dress

Claudine Auger in a floral dress

Around 1967. Claudine poses for the camera, raising her left arm above her head as instructed by the photographer. She’s doing her best to look at ease on what must...

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Claudine Auger perched on a stone seat

Claudine Auger perched on a stone seat

1967. Wrapped in a shawl, the French movie star favours the unknown photographer with an enigmatic smile. On the back of the photo is a Pierluigi agency copyright stamp together...

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Claudine Auger by candlelight

Claudine Auger by candlelight

1967. Another publicity photo for Italian comedy Anyone Can Play (Le dolci signnore), one of three movies released this year in which Claudine stars. On the back of the photo...

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Claudine Auger poses in front of a wall, her hands above her head

Hands up, Claudine!

1967. Claudine Auger wears a somewhat revealing dress for this publicity shot, her silky curves contrasting with the jagged wall decoration. On the back of the photo is a Pierluigi...

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Claudine Auger perched on a windowsill

Claudine Auger perched on a windowsill

1967. Clad head-to-toe in a cat suit (echoes of Emma Peel’s costumes in The Avengers), Claudine wraps her fingers around the sill on which she’s sitting. She doesn’t look totally...

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Among her many subsequent credits are two movies featuring other Bond girls: Ursula Andress in Le dolci signore (Anyone Can Play, 1967), and Barbara Bach and Barbara Bouchet in La tarantola dal ventre nero (Black Belly of the Tarantula, 1971), one of a number of giallos in which she appears.

It’s testament to Claudine Auger’s acting abilities that, with the passing of her youth, she continues to play mature character roles right up to the mid-1990s.

She divorces Pierre Gaspard-Huit in 1969 and remarries in 1984. She gives birth to her first and only child in 1991 at age 49, and she remains with her second husband, businessman Peter Brent, until his death in 2008. Claudine Auger passes away in 2019.

Around 1965. Claudine Auger. Photo by Giancarlo Botti.

Want to know more about Claudine Auger?

There are short pieces about Claudine in Wikipedia and IMDb. A slightly longer one is at MI6 The Home of James Bond 007.

Fuller accounts are available in online extracts from two books: Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973 by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul; and Deadlier Than the Male: Femme Fatales in 1960s and 1970s Cinema by Douglas Brode.

Most of Claudine’s obituaries are cursory affairs. The most ambitious was published by The James Bond Fan Club, A Woman of the Nuclear Age: Claudine Auger (1941-2019).

I was hoping to find a few interviews with Claudine Auger in The British Newspaper Archive and The Times Archive but the pickings were disappointingly thin. If you’re just looking for pictures, you could head for Claudine Auger’s Facebook page.

On the other hand, there’s lots of information out there about Thunderball. IMDb has quantities of Trivia and on YouTube there’s a fascinating 35-minute documentary narrated by Patrick Macnee (Steed in sixties cult classic TV series, The Avengers), Behind the scenes with THUNDERBALL part 1. The title is misleading. This is actually two documentaries run together. The second, which starts at 28:10, covers Bond’s life up to the point where he becomes 007, some observations by Ian Fleming and a brief profile of director Terence Young and his contribution to James Bond’s onscreen persona.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Françoise Dorléac – what might have been
Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti – a sad childhood, a glittering career and a bitter old age
Sex and power – Nazism in 1970s cinema
Yvonne Furneaux as Emma in La Dolce Vita
Yvonne Furneaux – glamorous English export

Filed Under: Behind the scenes, Films, Stars Tagged With: Claudine Auger, Faye Dunaway, Ian Fleming, Julie Christie, Luciana Paluzzi, Martine Beswick, Pierre Gaspard-Huit, Raquel Welch, Suzy Kendall, Thunderball

Veronica Lake – the power of Hollywood

1941 studio portrait of Veronica Lake
1941. Veronica Lake, femme fatale. Read more.

Veronica Lake is a cult figure. Just take a look on eBay: vintage photos of her are scarce, sought after and fetch a premium over those of most of her contemporaries.

In the early 1940s she was a superstar, adored by audiences and advertisers. She was one of four forties divas on whom the persona of Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based (the others were Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall and Gene Tierney; Jayne Mansfield, who lent her cleavage, was a product of the fifties). Veronica also inspired Kim Basinger’s character, call-girl Lynn Bracken, in the 1997 noir, L.A. Confidential.

So, what’s all the fuss about?

Well, Veronica Lake was one of the most distinctive and alluring seductresses of 1940s Hollywood with her peekaboo tresses, curvaceous figure and smoky delivery. She had that elusive and undefinable onscreen charisma that distinguishes a star from the supporting cast. And she was a versatile actress, equally compelling in thrillers and comedies.

Incredible as it seems knowing Veronica Lake only through her movies, according to director Preston Sturges, interviewed by gossip columnist Sheilah Graham:

She’s one of the little people. Like Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Freddie Bartholomew when he started, who take hold of an audience immediately. She’s nothing much in real life, a quiet, rather timid little thing. But the screen transforms her and brings her to life.

Her rags-to-riches-to-rags story casts a revealing light on the movie studios of the era. The eye for the main chance, the creativity and the marketing savvy on which Hollywood was built. And the negligence, the exploitation and the immorality that ran alongside them. What became of Veronica Lake was and remains a cautionary tale for aspiring starlets.

Veronica Lake – Hollywood giveth

In her own words:

Veronica Lake is a Hollywood creation. Hollywood is good at doing that sort of thing. Its proficiency at transforming little Connie Ockleman of Brooklyn into sultry, sensuous Veronica Lake was proved by the success of the venture. And the subject, me, was willing and in some small ways able.

The transformation (these days we’d call it rebranding) happens after a screen test at Paramount. Take a bow, Oscar-nominated producer, Arthur Hornblow, Jr:

Connie, here’s how I came to choose your new name. I believe that when people look into those navy blue eyes of yours, they’ll see a calm coolness – the calm coolness of a lake. And your features, Connie, are classic features. And when I think of classic features, I think of Veronica.

This after Mr Hornblow has identified her trademark feature. During her screen test, one of Veronica’s elbows slips off the table on which it’s resting. Her long, blonde hair falls over her right eye and she spends the next few minutes tossing her head to get it out of the way. It’s not the first time her hair has given her this problem. It behaved in the same way in Busby Berkeley’s 1940 movie, Forty Little Mothers (fast forward to 27:50). But Hornblow is the first to recognize its potential as a marketing device. The peekaboo is born.

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Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

1941. Veronica Lake wears her honey-blonde hair with a deep side parting and swept over to the opposite side. Soft waves drape her cheek and an S-curl falls seductively over...

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Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

1943. Veronica Lake goes to a good deal of trouble to maintain her signature hairstyle. According to LIFE magazine:

It takes a lot of time,...

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Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

Veronica Lake, the peekaboo girl

1944. The peekaboo isn’t the world’s most practical style – it tends to get caught in car doors, lifts and electric fans. But LIFE magazine reports...

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It debuts in I Wanted Wings (1940), Veronica Lake’s breakthrough movie, in which she plays the part of a sultry nightclub singer. It quickly becomes all the rage and across the nation women flock to beauty salons to get “The Lake Look.” Groucho Marx quips, “I opened up my mop closet the other day and I thought Veronica Lake fell out.” And the November 24, 1941 issue of LIFE magazine contains a three-page article that describes Veronica Lake’s hair as “a cinema property of world influence.”

Unfortunately, its ongoing popularity soon becomes a problem in wartime America because a number of women in munitions factories are injured when their long hair gets caught in assembly-line machinery. At the behest of the War Womanpower Commission, Veronica Lake changes her hairstyle and makes a newsreel to promote her new look.

But back to I Wanted Wings and its 18-year-old wannabee… The peekaboo would not have caught on had the movie not pulled in the punters. That it succeeds in doing so is to a large extent down to the marketing. This in turn involves a publicity shoot that creates quite a stir. As with the peekaboo, the defining image is the result of a lucky accident. Here’s how Veronica Lake remembers it:

One day, I was standing close to a B-17 as the photographer was doing coy set-ups with me. The pilot of the plane either didn’t see us or held all motion-picture people in scorn. He started engines just as I was leaning over in one of those ridiculous poses that were such favorites with publicity photographers those days. My rear end was towards the plane, and I was peeking around to my right at the camera when the prop wash hit. It caught my dress and blew it up around my thighs. The photographer captured the moment, chuckled at what would probably be a funny but unusable photo, and went on to take others. It ended up as the photograph the studio used in their advance mailing for I Wanted Wings. It was released to newspapers and magazines all over the nation. And it hit big.

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. In This Gun for Hire Veronica Lake’s love interest is Robert Preston, but she actually shares more scenes with Alan Ladd. The pairing turns out to be a masterstroke...

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. The Ladd/Lake pairing works at a personal level – the two actors hit it off with each other. In her autobiography, Veronica recalls:

Both of us were very...

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. Having earned her stripes in I Wanted Wings and Sullivan’s Travels, Veronica is on a roll and has top billing as Ellen Graham in This Gun for Hire. Ellen...

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. This Gun for Hire is loosely based on Graham Greene’s 1936 novel, A Gun for Sale. The plot deals with international intrigue and treason revolving around the sale of...

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. This Gun for Hire is popular with audiences and critics alike. Norbert Lusk, writing in the May 25, 1942 edition of The Los Angeles Times is a fan: “To...

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Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for This Gun for Hire

1942. This shot is circulated by the studio for reproduction in the fan magazines read by all the girls eager to emulate Veronica Lake's peekaboo hairstyle. A caption on the...

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The fact is, Veronica is a real looker. By age 16 she’s already bosomy – by no means the norm in post-Depression America – and not averse to flaunting her charms. This is not lost on the guys at Paramount, who gleefully take full advantage. As critic Cecelia Ager observes in PM, a New York daily tabloid:

Veronica Lake poses in a lamé gown
1941. Quintessential Veronica Lake. Read more.

Miss Lake is supposed to be a femme fatale and to that end it was arranged her truly splendid bosom be unconfined and draped ever so slightly in a manner to make the current crop of sweater girls prigs by comparison. Such to do has been made over doing justice to those attributes of Miss Lake that everything else about her has been thrown out of focus. The effect is too uncanny.

Veronica may be perfectly formed, but she’s also small – 4 foot 11 inches (just under 1.5 metres) tall to be precise – one inch shorter and she’d be classified as a dwarf. With a star on their hands, Paramount aren’t going to let that get in the way and their solution is inspired.

They pair her with one of their leading men, Alan Ladd, whose nickname at school was “Tiny.” With him being just over 5 foot 6 inches (a little under 1.7 metres) tall, it’s a match made in heaven. They co-star in seven movies including three classics: This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942) and The Blue Dahlia (1946). It’s like Bogey and Bacall but without the offscreen romance.

Looks to die for, luck and studio opportunism aside, Veronica Lake has two other ingredients vital to her transformation into a star. The first is star quality. It’s impossible to define but either you have it or you don’t. Hollywood is overflowing with gorgeous dames but most of them fail to register onscreen. Veronica is different. Onscreen she’s simply mesmerizing. No two ways about it.

Then there’s her flair for acting.

In addition to the films already mentioned, three others showcase her talent. In Mark Sandrich’s So Proudly We Hail (1943), starring alongside Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard, Veronica has the movie’s most dramatic scene, in which she breaks down and voices hysterical hatred for the Japanese. Paulette is Oscar-nominated but it’s Veronica who delivers the emotional core of the film, and that scene of hers really underscores the brutal struggle of the war in the Pacific.

In the two others, she’s an accomplished comédienne. In Preston Sturges’s Sullivan’s Travels (1941), Veronica dresses as a hobo and takes to the road in the company of Joel McCrea. To the suggestion of which the studio’s incredulous response is: “She’s not an actress, she’s a great-looking dame with a great chest and nutty hair. But she’s no actress.” For most of the film, neither her peekaboo nor her curves are on display – in the case of the latter, just as well because she’s six months pregnant when filming begins!

Veronica Lake being made up
1941. Veronica Lake being made up. Photo by Talmage Morrison. Read more.

In I Married a Witch (1942), she is Jennifer, a witch whose plan for revenge doesn’t go quite as she intended. Her victim and protagonist is played by Frederic March. Pre-production, he describes Veronica as “a brainless little blonde sexpot, void of any acting ability.” She retaliates by calling him a “pompous poseur.” And they keep on winding each other up on set to the point where March nicknames the movie I Married a Bitch. Nevertheless, the result is charming, witty and an inspiration for 1960s TV series Bewitched.

By 1943, age 21 Veronica Lake is at the peak of her career and earning $4,500 a week.

Veronica Lake – Hollywood taketh away

And then she falls off a cliff. In 1944, the powers-that-be at Paramount, to whom she’s contracted, make a fatal mistake. They cast her as Dora Bruckmann, a Nazi spy, in The Hour Before Dawn. It’s a lousy role and pretty much guaranteed to alienate her from her audience. What’s more she struggles with the Austrian accent she has to adopt. Her acting becomes stilted as a result. The film is a box-office flop and she takes a lot of the flack.

Suddenly Veronica Lake’s career is on the skids and Paramount fail to come up with any kind of strategy to deal with the situation. They cannot see beyond her sex appeal and they undermine all the good work of Hornblow and Sturges with a series of second-rate roles in second-rate movies such as Hold That Blonde! and Out of This World.