Gina Manès
German card by Ross Verlag, no. 3225/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Defu (Deutsche Film-Union).
French actress Gina Manès (1893 - 1989) starred in some 90 films between 1916 and 1966. She is best known for Coeur fidèle (Jean Epstein 1923) and Thérèse Raquin (Jacques Feyder 1928) .
Gina Manès, originally Blanche Moulin, was born in Paris in 1893 as the daughter of a furniture salesman. After small roles at the Théâtre du Palais Royal and other theatres, and dancer in the revues by Rip, she was discovered by actor René Navarre, who considered her photogenic and introduced her to director Louis Feuillade. Changing her name to Gina Manès, she debuted in film in Les Six Petits Coeurs des Six Petites Filles (Edouard-Emile Viollet, 1916). After further years on the stage, her real filmic career started with L’Homme sans visage (1919) by Feuillade. She became a well-known film actress thanks to her role as the innkeeper’s daughter in L’Auberge Rouge (1923) by Jean Epstein, who subsequently gave her the lead in his Coeur fidèle (1923). In this film Manès is a woman married to a drunken brute from whom she does not dare to separate, although she dreams of running off with a sympathetic dockworker.
Next Manès played in films by a.o. Germaine Dulac (Ame d’artiste, 1924) and Alberto Cavalcanti (Le train sans yeux, 1926). Because of her troubling beauty, her heavy and poisonous look and her feline walk, she soon became type-casted as seductress and femme fatale. Her nicknames became The Vamp with the Emerald Eyes, and The Athena with the Green Look. In 1927 Abel Gance casted her as Joséphine de Beauharnais in his epic production Napoléon. Gance asked her to do a screen-test in the studio dressed only in a nightgown and jewels, Directoire styled. ‘I had to hum a cheerful song, then a complaining song, after which he decided that I was the perfect character for the role, as I had the historic Creole mood.’ In the following year Jacques Feyder directed Manès in what is considered her best role, the title character in Thérèse Raquin (1928), after the novel by Zola. The film was a Franco-German production, involving German scriptwriters, a German production manager, art direction by a Russian and a German, cinematography by a Dane and a German, and both French and German actors (including Hans Adalbert Schlettow and La Jana). The story deals with a truck driver (Schlettow)who kills the husband of a woman (Manès) he loves, but a blackmailer threatens to reveal the murder. Unfortunately no copy of the film remains. NB After the Second World War another memorable adaptation of Zola’s novel would be made with Simone Signoret in the lead (dir. Marcel Carné 1953).
In the late 1920s, foreign studios called, so Manès acted in Germany and Sweden in Die Heilige und ihr Narr (1928) by William Dieterle, Looping the loop (1928) by Arthur Robison and Rauch (1928) and Synd (1928), both by Gustav Molander. Manès married her partner in Naples au baiser du feu (Serge Dadejdine 1925) and Le trains sans yeux, Georges Charlia, and was often coupled with him in films. The arrival of sound cinema did not change her status and she continued to be a star; she had a big commercial success in 1931 as – again – a vamp in Une belle garce (Marco de Gastyne 1930). At the apex of her career, Manès quitted it all and with Charlia she went to Morocco to open a bar on a road 100 km from Marrakech. When she returned after two years, the film business considered her too old for being a star – she was 40 by now. Younger actresses such as Ginette Leclerc, Mireille Ballin and Viviane Romance had taken over her cast as femme fatale. Manès had to satisfy with secondary roles as older women still in love but neglected, such as the plotting demi-mondaine Marinka in Mayerling (Anatole Litvak 1935). And in Les caves du Majestic (Richard Pottier 1944) she even became the female equivalent of Emil Jannings in The Last Laugh, that is: a toilet cleaner. More and more attracted to the circus, she started an act with tigers at the Cirque du Hiver and the Médrano. But in November 1942 she was severely wounded by a wild animal and had to retire. After the war, while in Morocco for the shooting of La Danseuse du Marrakech (Léon Mathot 1949), Manès stayed there and opened up a drama course in Rabat. She acted in two shorts, but disappointed she returned to France in 1954. Almost forgotten, she had to satisfy with bit parts in French cinema – which she did frequently in the mid-1950s though - and turned towards the stage with the Grenier de Toulouse, where she could play parts fit to her age. After two memorable roles in Bonheur est pour demain (1960) by Henri Fabiani and Pas de panique (1966) by Sergio Gobbi, Gina Manès ended her career. She moved to a home where she died in 1972, age 96.
Sources: English/French Wikipedia, IMDB. NB this card was issued for Manès' lead in Die Heilige und ihr Narr, the only film she made for Defu. She plays an envious stepmother who wants to destroy the happy marriage of her stepchild (Lien Deyers) with the young neighbour (William Dieterle).
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards
Gina Manès
German card by Ross Verlag, no. 3225/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Defu (Deutsche Film-Union).
French actress Gina Manès (1893 - 1989) starred in some 90 films between 1916 and 1966. She is best known for Coeur fidèle (Jean Epstein 1923) and Thérèse Raquin (Jacques Feyder 1928) .
Gina Manès, originally Blanche Moulin, was born in Paris in 1893 as the daughter of a furniture salesman. After small roles at the Théâtre du Palais Royal and other theatres, and dancer in the revues by Rip, she was discovered by actor René Navarre, who considered her photogenic and introduced her to director Louis Feuillade. Changing her name to Gina Manès, she debuted in film in Les Six Petits Coeurs des Six Petites Filles (Edouard-Emile Viollet, 1916). After further years on the stage, her real filmic career started with L’Homme sans visage (1919) by Feuillade. She became a well-known film actress thanks to her role as the innkeeper’s daughter in L’Auberge Rouge (1923) by Jean Epstein, who subsequently gave her the lead in his Coeur fidèle (1923). In this film Manès is a woman married to a drunken brute from whom she does not dare to separate, although she dreams of running off with a sympathetic dockworker.
Next Manès played in films by a.o. Germaine Dulac (Ame d’artiste, 1924) and Alberto Cavalcanti (Le train sans yeux, 1926). Because of her troubling beauty, her heavy and poisonous look and her feline walk, she soon became type-casted as seductress and femme fatale. Her nicknames became The Vamp with the Emerald Eyes, and The Athena with the Green Look. In 1927 Abel Gance casted her as Joséphine de Beauharnais in his epic production Napoléon. Gance asked her to do a screen-test in the studio dressed only in a nightgown and jewels, Directoire styled. ‘I had to hum a cheerful song, then a complaining song, after which he decided that I was the perfect character for the role, as I had the historic Creole mood.’ In the following year Jacques Feyder directed Manès in what is considered her best role, the title character in Thérèse Raquin (1928), after the novel by Zola. The film was a Franco-German production, involving German scriptwriters, a German production manager, art direction by a Russian and a German, cinematography by a Dane and a German, and both French and German actors (including Hans Adalbert Schlettow and La Jana). The story deals with a truck driver (Schlettow)who kills the husband of a woman (Manès) he loves, but a blackmailer threatens to reveal the murder. Unfortunately no copy of the film remains. NB After the Second World War another memorable adaptation of Zola’s novel would be made with Simone Signoret in the lead (dir. Marcel Carné 1953).
In the late 1920s, foreign studios called, so Manès acted in Germany and Sweden in Die Heilige und ihr Narr (1928) by William Dieterle, Looping the loop (1928) by Arthur Robison and Rauch (1928) and Synd (1928), both by Gustav Molander. Manès married her partner in Naples au baiser du feu (Serge Dadejdine 1925) and Le trains sans yeux, Georges Charlia, and was often coupled with him in films. The arrival of sound cinema did not change her status and she continued to be a star; she had a big commercial success in 1931 as – again – a vamp in Une belle garce (Marco de Gastyne 1930). At the apex of her career, Manès quitted it all and with Charlia she went to Morocco to open a bar on a road 100 km from Marrakech. When she returned after two years, the film business considered her too old for being a star – she was 40 by now. Younger actresses such as Ginette Leclerc, Mireille Ballin and Viviane Romance had taken over her cast as femme fatale. Manès had to satisfy with secondary roles as older women still in love but neglected, such as the plotting demi-mondaine Marinka in Mayerling (Anatole Litvak 1935). And in Les caves du Majestic (Richard Pottier 1944) she even became the female equivalent of Emil Jannings in The Last Laugh, that is: a toilet cleaner. More and more attracted to the circus, she started an act with tigers at the Cirque du Hiver and the Médrano. But in November 1942 she was severely wounded by a wild animal and had to retire. After the war, while in Morocco for the shooting of La Danseuse du Marrakech (Léon Mathot 1949), Manès stayed there and opened up a drama course in Rabat. She acted in two shorts, but disappointed she returned to France in 1954. Almost forgotten, she had to satisfy with bit parts in French cinema – which she did frequently in the mid-1950s though - and turned towards the stage with the Grenier de Toulouse, where she could play parts fit to her age. After two memorable roles in Bonheur est pour demain (1960) by Henri Fabiani and Pas de panique (1966) by Sergio Gobbi, Gina Manès ended her career. She moved to a home where she died in 1972, age 96.
Sources: English/French Wikipedia, IMDB. NB this card was issued for Manès' lead in Die Heilige und ihr Narr, the only film she made for Defu. She plays an envious stepmother who wants to destroy the happy marriage of her stepchild (Lien Deyers) with the young neighbour (William Dieterle).
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards