Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: Veiled Divas - 2 of 2

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

Veiled Divas

2 of 2

This is the second of two Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies posts taking a look at motion pictures dealing with the fictional divas of stage and screen!

Yes, it's the biz - show biz! All the glitz, all the glamour, all the glory.

It's all about getting your mug up there on the silver screen or getting that standing ovation. On the flip side - you're a never was, a could've been, a has-been, or a legend.

This week we take a look at veiled divas - the used-to-be stars who live with an air of mystery surrounding them. Oh, yes... such tasty secrets, the kind only true divas keep.

There's quite a bit to unpack with these particular films, which I relish. It's all delish, so let's take a look and dish on all that glitters, but doesn't necessarily lead to gold!

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The Mystery of Marie Roget

(1935)

AKA: Phantom of Paris

The bodies of women without a face keep popping up in Paris, as a popular actress schemes to do away with her romantic rival, who just happens to be her younger sister. A detective is brought in to unravel the strange circumstances and get to the truth.

Loosely adapted from a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, this mystery was directed by Phil Rosen, produced by Universal Pictures, and stars Maria Montez and Patric Knowles.

The original Edgar Allan Poe story is based on the real-life murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers, who was found floating in the Hudson River near Weehawken, NJ. Poe transplanted the events to Paris and placed the case in the hands of amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin. In a weird twist, Poe's ultimate conclusion as to the circumstances of the crime were proved correct when the murderers confessed well after "The Mystery of Marie Roget" was published.

The 1842 Edgar Allan Poe story was a follow-up to his earlier "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Writer Michael Jacoby ditched almost everything except the Paris setting and the title. He changed the detective's name to Paul Dupin and moved up the clock 47 years (to 1889) than the time set in the book.

A sequel to Universal's 1932 movie Murders in the Rue Morgue, though this film is set 44 years after that one. In that movie, the name of the detective was also changed from the original Poe short story. Leon Ames, then know as Leon Waycoff, played Pierre Dupin.

Peggy Moran was originally cast as the female lead in December of 1941. However, two days before filming was to begin, on December 10th, Moran was replaced with Maria Montez. In the film, the song Montez sings, Mama Dit Moi, is lip synced by Montez, but sung by vocalist Dorothy Triden. Nell O'Day, who played the secondary female lead, is on record saying Montez was difficult to work with. Despite getting along with her, O'Day said Montez "was not popular with the staff and crew because she thought of them almost as servants."

Maria Montez

Maria Montez, was a Dominican actress who gained fame and popularity in the 1940's starring in a series of filmed-in-Technicolor costume adventure films. Her screen image was that of a seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparkling jewels. She became so identified with these adventure epics that she became known as 'The Queen of Technicolor'.

She grew tired of making adventure epics and had many disagreements with Universal. She and her second husband, actor Jean-Pierre Aumont eventually moved to France, where they set up their own film production company.  

At the age of 39, Montez died in Suresnes, France, on September 7, 1951 after apparently suffering a heart attack and drowning while taking a hot bath.

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The Legend of Lylah Clare

(1968)

A dictatorial film director hires an unknown actress to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star who died under mysterious circumstances on her wedding night 20 years previously.

Based on the 1963 DuPont Show of the Week TV drama of the same name, this mystery/drama was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Robert Aldrich, and stars Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Michael Murphy, Coral Browne and Valentina Cortese.

In the original TV play, the title movie-star character, played by Tuesday Weld, was generally thought to be a veiled portrait of Marilyn Monroe, who had recently died. In the film version, however, the title character calls to mind Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich instead.

Director Aldrich (Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?) initially wanted Jeanne Moreau or Diana Dors for the lead, but they proved unavailable. Ursula Andress was approached for the lead, but she declined.

Finch said he accepted the film to work with Aldrich again, and because he wanted to work with Novak. He called the film a "Hollywood melodrama with bitter irony, an enormous sense of fun. It's right on the edge of being too much. Zarkan is one of those monsters who can charm people. He's passé, yet you have a sneaking admiration for him. There's something grand and theatrically right about him. Let's say we're a seedy lot in this picture - it's black Mahogany Gothic horror."

This served as Kim Novak's last starring role in an American-made feature film.

This was also Novak's first film in three years, due to a riding accident, two car accidents, a divorce, losing her house in a mud slide and a lack of interest in returning to films. The actress found that she had little enthusiasm for her character. Director Aldrich found it increasingly difficult to elicit a viable performance from her, and initially blamed her for the film's poor performance at the box office. However, he later stated it wasn't her fault, but his; as director and producer he felt he failed to communicate her character properly to the audience.

She regretted making the film and for years after its release, Novak refused to even discuss its making. When she finally spoke, she claimed that director Aldrich had her dialogue as the title character dubbed by Hildegard Knef, without Novak's consent or knowledge. When she attended a screening and heard the dubbing, Novak said of the experience, "God, it was so humiliating!"

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Dinah East

(1970)

After her death, a glamorous 1950's movie queen is revealed to be a man whose secret led to complicated relationships.

This Hollywood drama was directed by Gene Nash and stars Jeremy Stockwell,  Warhol Superstar Ultra Violet, Andy Davis and Reid Smith.

Ultra Violet

Isabelle Collin Dufresne met Salvador Dalí in 1954. She became his muse, pupil, studio assistant, and lover in both Port Lligat, Spain, and in New York City. Later, she would recall, "I realized that I was 'surreal', which I never knew until I met Dalí."

In 1964 she selected the stage name Ultra Violet at Andy Warhol 's suggestion, because it was her preferred fashion at the time; her hair color was often violet or lilac. She became one of many Superstars in Warhol's Factory, and played multiple roles in over a dozen films between 1965 and 1974.

In 1969, she was dethroned as Warhol's primary muse by Viva, a more recent discovery.

In 1988, Ultra Violet published her autobiography, Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol.

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Fedora

(1978)

A down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer attempts to lure a famous but reclusive film actress out of retirement only to discover the horrible truth behind her success.

Based on a novella by Tom Tryon, this mystery/drama was directed by Billy Wilder and stars William Holden, Marthe Keller, Hildegard Knef, José Ferrer, and Frances Sternhagen.

 

Though Faye Dunaway was the first choice of director Billy Wilder to play the title character, he cast actress Marthe Keller after seeing her 1977's Bobby Deerfield. 

Wilder and Holden first worked together on 1950's Sunset Boulevard. 

Marlene Dietrich, who had previously worked with Wilder, was first offered Hildegard Knef's role, but she declined. She despised the original book and thought the screenplay was no great improvement.

The film had a troubled birth. Prior to a preview in Santa Barbara, United Artists cut twelve minutes from the movie. Director Billy Wilder refused to allow any further cuts, and the screening went poorly, with the audience laughing during the wrong parts of the film. And distributor Allied Artists dropped the film after a poor response to its exhibition at a New York City Myasthenia Gravis Foundation Charity Benefit screening.

Marthe Keller later said that working with Billy Wilder was an outstanding experience, but it was very hard for her at the time. She had felt that she was required to obey Wilder without question. She was not used to it.

Author Tom Tryon's original inspiration for his novella was silent star Corinne Griffith, who in 1965 claimed she was not the original silent actress Corinne Griffith and was in fact a younger woman during a well-publicised divorce trial.

After viewing a rough cut of the film, Wilder realized to his horror that neither Keller nor Knef could be understood easily, nor did their voices sound very much alike, which was crucial to the film's plot. For the English language version, German actress Inga Bunsch dubbed both Keller's and Knef's voices, while Keller dubbed them for the French language version, and Knef dubbed them for the German language version. Hildegard Knef is the actress who dubbed some of Kim Novak's dialogue in 1968's The Legend of Lylah Clare. 

Wilder originally wanted the actress playing the title role to play her as both the younger and older versions. However, the old age make up used on Keller caused a scar on Keller's forehead to flare up, making that impossible. This placed a strain on the relationship between the director and actress and the two never established a credible working relationship. The poor reception of this film essentially ended Keller's acting career. 

The film received oddly positive reviews. In her review in The New York Times, critic Janet Maslin called it "old-fashioned with a vengeance, a proud, passionate remembrance of the way movies used to be, and a bitter smile at what they have become. It is rich, majestic, very close to ridiculous, and also a little bit mad. It seems exactly what Mr. Wilder wants it to be, perfectly self-contained and filled with the echoes of a lifetime; no one could mistake this for the work of a young man. Indeed, it has the resonance of an epitaph. That, too, seems a part of Mr. Wilder's design...The compactness and symmetry evident in Fedora aren't easily achieved these days without a good deal of self-consciousness. Mr. Wilder achieves them naturally."

Despite the relatively positive reviews, the film received only a limited release with very little marketing, leaving Wilder rather bitter.

The film has since garnered a cult following and is considered a movie which never got its due.

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Veronika Voss

(1982)

A once prominent UFA actress who supposedly had an affair with Goebbels is kept a virtual prisoner by her doctor, which raises the suspicions of a sports journalist who accidentally meets the screen legend. Partially based on the life of Sybille Schmitz, who found fame under the Nazi regime, but whose career was destroyed after the end of WWII. 

This West German black-and-white drama was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and stars Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, and Cornelia Froboess.

Part of the BRD Trilogy along with 1979's The Marriage of Maria Braun and 1981's Lola. BRD stands for Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany period in which the three stories takes place. The films are connected in a thematic rather than narrative sense. All three deal with different character and plot lines, but each one focuses on the story of a specific woman in West Germany after World War II.

UFA (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), which was was established on December 18, 1917, as a direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda, is a film and television production company. In March 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and later Minister of the Economy, Agriculture and Nutrition in Hitler's cabinet, purchased UFA and transferred it to the Nazi Party in 1933. In 1942, as a result of the Nazi policy of "forcible coordination" known as the Gleichschaltung, UFA and all of its competitors, including Tobis, Terra, Bavaria Film and Wien-Film, were bundled together with Nazi-controlled foreign film production companies to form the super-corporation UFA-Film GmbH (Ufi), with headquarters in Berlin. After the Red Army occupied the UFA complex in 1945 in Babelsberg, and after the privatization of Bavaria and UFA in 1956 in West Germany, the company was restructured to form Universum Film AG and taken over by a consortium of banks.

This is the last of Fassbinder's films released during his lifetime.

Juliane Lorenz, who's seen in the brief role of a secretary, was a close associate of Fassbinder and the editor of this film. Lorenz had spotted an article in Die Zeit about Schmitz's legal troubles and brought it to Fassbinder's attention.

Fassbinder premiered this film in February of 1982, at the Berlin Film Festival. It was hailed as one of the best of his 40 films. Late on the night of June 9, 1982, Fassbinder made a telephone call from Munich to Paris to tell his best friend he had flushed all his drugs down the toilet - everything except for one last line of cocaine. The next morning, Fassbinder was found dead in his room, a cold cigarette between his fingers, a videotape machine still playing. The most famous, notorious and prolific modern German filmmaker was dead at the age of 36.

 Rosel Zech

Rosel Zech was cast by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the1981 film Lola in a supporting role. The director immediately chose her for his next project and cast her as the lead. Zech's convincing, alluring portrayal of the shunned, morphine-addicted actress, based on Sybille Schmitz, turned Zech into a star overnight.

Sybille Schmitz

Sybille Schmitz, upon whom the title character is based, committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills on April 13, 1955. She was 45 years old. At the time of her death, she had been living in Munich with a woman named Ursula Moritz, a physician who allegedly sold her morphine at an inflated rate and kept Schmitz doped up while squandering the little funds she had available to her. Schmitz's family claimed that once the actress proved to be of no more use to Moritz, the physician facilitated her suicide.

Moritz was eventually charged with continued offense against the drug law with intent to gain illegal financial advantage. Henriette von Speidel, a seventy-year-old actress, had set the ball rolling towards a legal investigation. The elderly woman had noticed that in recent years, in addition to Schmitz, two other subtenants of the doctor had apparently taken their own lives. She rented a room in Dr. Moritz's home and was finally able to produce the evidence: 723 prescriptions for narcotics, made out within a period of just under three years. Paul Demmler, an official from the Munich Health Department who was called in on the case, surprisingly defended the accused physician, and the court was not able to establish legally binding proof of a connection between the doctor's practice of prescribing the drugs and Schmitz's death. The tabloids at the time could not accept the verdict - Moritz was sentenced to just four months in prison, and the public learned that the police and the Health Department for months had refused to investigate the charges. The case was never satisfactorily solved, leaving room for speculation.

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

Memories Are Made Of This - Rosel Zech

 from the 1982 motion picture Veronika Voss