Jeanne Helbling
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 776. Photo: Paramount.
Jeanne Helbling was an actress of the French cinema of the 1920s and 1930s, who was extremely active in early French sound film. She was also a Resistance heroine.
Jeanne Helbling was born 28 July 1903 in the village of Thann, near Mulhouse, in the Alsace, annexed by Germany after the French defeat of the Franco-Prussian war. She came from a family of factory workers and vineyard keepers. In 1920, two years after Alsace had become French again, she became an extra in the film Le grillon du foyer (1920) by Jean Manoussi, starring Charles Boyer, after which a small part followed in Julien Duvivier’s Les roquevillards (1922). More substantial parts were in Un bon petit diable (René Leprince 1923) and Survivre (Edouard Chimot 1923). Then she played Madame de Pompadour in Mandrin (1923) by Henri Fescourt, with Romuald Joubé in the title role as the notorious smuggler. In 1924 she acted against Pierre Blanchar in L’arriviste (1924) by André Hugon. All in all she acted in some 30 silent films, among which also La chaussée des géants (Robert Boudrioz/ Jean Durand 1926) with Armand Tallier; Le juif errant (Luitz-Morat 1926) adapted from Eugène Sue, and with André Marnay; Le capitaine Rascasse (1926) by Henri Desfontaines, and with Gabriel Gabrio in the title role; the romantic series released in Spain: El capitán Sansón; and not to forget the avant-garde film by Jean Epstein La glace à trois faces (1927) in which past and present are mingled in an unusual way, and in which Helbling played a naïve working class girl, one of the three women the protagonist meets… and is disappointed with. After this followed a.o. the Molière adaptation La jalousie du Barbouillé (1927) by Alberto Cavalcanti, and Tire au flanc (1928) by Jean Renoir, and with Michel Simon and Catherine Hessling, Renoir’s then wife. In the late 1920s Helbling also went to Berlin to act in William Dieterle’s Das Geheimnis des Abbé X (1927), with himself in the title role, Der Held aller Mädchenträume (Robert Land 1927/1928) with Harry Liedtke, and in Felix Basch’ Mascottchen (1928), with Käthe von Nagy.
Without much difficulty Jeanne Helbling passed on to talking pictures, while doing music-hall as well, such as a 1932 show with Josephine Baker at the Casino de Paris. Paramount France hired her to act at the studios of Joinville-Le-Pont for the French versions of films like Une femme a menti (1929) by Charles de Rochefort, a multilingual shot at the same time in German, Swedish, Italian and Spanish. In the early 1930s Jeanne Helbling also played in American features destined for French audiences, such as L’aviateur (1931) by William A. Seiter and Jean Daumery, with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Buster se marie (1931) by Claude Autant-Lara, with Buster Keaton. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Helbling would act in some 40 films, many of which comedies and supporting parts. She played for instance Empress Eugenie in Ludwig Berger’s film Les trois valses (1938), starring Yvonne Printemps. Another example is Paix sur le Rhin (1938) by Jean Choux, shot in Helbling’s natal region and dealing with a wine owner family of which two sons fight each other in the First World War. Helbling’s co-actors were Françoise Rosay, Pauline Carton, Michèle Alfa, John Loder, Abel Jacquin and Jim Gérald. The pacifist film, though, soon became unfit for the times. For a long time it was considered destroyed but in the late 20th century it was found and restored again.
During the German occupation in Paris, Helbling joined the resistance under the name of Chantal. She hosted people from the resistance as well as Allies in her apartment in Rue Casimir Pinel in Neuilly. Within the framework of the triple mission Arquebuse-Brumaire-Seahorse , Pierre Brossolette, colonel Passy and Forest Yeo-Thomas organised on 26 mars 1943 an important meeting which led to the creation of the Committee for the Coordination of the resistance movements in Northern France. This effected in the constitutive meeting on 27 May 1943 of the national Council for the Resistance , in 48, rue du Four, in Paris, at René Corbin. Even she was concerned about the Gestapo, Jeanne Helbling managed to get out the Second World War. She was honoured for her work by the state of France, in particular by General de Gaulle, as well as by the United Kingdom, who gave her the Order of the Empire for hosting a.o. the British agent Forest Yeo-Thomas, known as Shelley or The White Rabbit. After the Liberation, Jeanne Helbling only did two more films, Dernier métro (1945) by Maurice de Canonge, and Jeux de femmes (1946) by Maurice Cloche. In 1946 she married an American of French origin, Henri Garin, definitely quitted film acting and moved with him to the United States. Forty years after, Jeanne Helbling died in New-York on 6 August 1985, she just had turned 82.
Sources: IMDB, Caroline Hanotte on CinéArtistes.
Jeanne Helbling
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 776. Photo: Paramount.
Jeanne Helbling was an actress of the French cinema of the 1920s and 1930s, who was extremely active in early French sound film. She was also a Resistance heroine.
Jeanne Helbling was born 28 July 1903 in the village of Thann, near Mulhouse, in the Alsace, annexed by Germany after the French defeat of the Franco-Prussian war. She came from a family of factory workers and vineyard keepers. In 1920, two years after Alsace had become French again, she became an extra in the film Le grillon du foyer (1920) by Jean Manoussi, starring Charles Boyer, after which a small part followed in Julien Duvivier’s Les roquevillards (1922). More substantial parts were in Un bon petit diable (René Leprince 1923) and Survivre (Edouard Chimot 1923). Then she played Madame de Pompadour in Mandrin (1923) by Henri Fescourt, with Romuald Joubé in the title role as the notorious smuggler. In 1924 she acted against Pierre Blanchar in L’arriviste (1924) by André Hugon. All in all she acted in some 30 silent films, among which also La chaussée des géants (Robert Boudrioz/ Jean Durand 1926) with Armand Tallier; Le juif errant (Luitz-Morat 1926) adapted from Eugène Sue, and with André Marnay; Le capitaine Rascasse (1926) by Henri Desfontaines, and with Gabriel Gabrio in the title role; the romantic series released in Spain: El capitán Sansón; and not to forget the avant-garde film by Jean Epstein La glace à trois faces (1927) in which past and present are mingled in an unusual way, and in which Helbling played a naïve working class girl, one of the three women the protagonist meets… and is disappointed with. After this followed a.o. the Molière adaptation La jalousie du Barbouillé (1927) by Alberto Cavalcanti, and Tire au flanc (1928) by Jean Renoir, and with Michel Simon and Catherine Hessling, Renoir’s then wife. In the late 1920s Helbling also went to Berlin to act in William Dieterle’s Das Geheimnis des Abbé X (1927), with himself in the title role, Der Held aller Mädchenträume (Robert Land 1927/1928) with Harry Liedtke, and in Felix Basch’ Mascottchen (1928), with Käthe von Nagy.
Without much difficulty Jeanne Helbling passed on to talking pictures, while doing music-hall as well, such as a 1932 show with Josephine Baker at the Casino de Paris. Paramount France hired her to act at the studios of Joinville-Le-Pont for the French versions of films like Une femme a menti (1929) by Charles de Rochefort, a multilingual shot at the same time in German, Swedish, Italian and Spanish. In the early 1930s Jeanne Helbling also played in American features destined for French audiences, such as L’aviateur (1931) by William A. Seiter and Jean Daumery, with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Buster se marie (1931) by Claude Autant-Lara, with Buster Keaton. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Helbling would act in some 40 films, many of which comedies and supporting parts. She played for instance Empress Eugenie in Ludwig Berger’s film Les trois valses (1938), starring Yvonne Printemps. Another example is Paix sur le Rhin (1938) by Jean Choux, shot in Helbling’s natal region and dealing with a wine owner family of which two sons fight each other in the First World War. Helbling’s co-actors were Françoise Rosay, Pauline Carton, Michèle Alfa, John Loder, Abel Jacquin and Jim Gérald. The pacifist film, though, soon became unfit for the times. For a long time it was considered destroyed but in the late 20th century it was found and restored again.
During the German occupation in Paris, Helbling joined the resistance under the name of Chantal. She hosted people from the resistance as well as Allies in her apartment in Rue Casimir Pinel in Neuilly. Within the framework of the triple mission Arquebuse-Brumaire-Seahorse , Pierre Brossolette, colonel Passy and Forest Yeo-Thomas organised on 26 mars 1943 an important meeting which led to the creation of the Committee for the Coordination of the resistance movements in Northern France. This effected in the constitutive meeting on 27 May 1943 of the national Council for the Resistance , in 48, rue du Four, in Paris, at René Corbin. Even she was concerned about the Gestapo, Jeanne Helbling managed to get out the Second World War. She was honoured for her work by the state of France, in particular by General de Gaulle, as well as by the United Kingdom, who gave her the Order of the Empire for hosting a.o. the British agent Forest Yeo-Thomas, known as Shelley or The White Rabbit. After the Liberation, Jeanne Helbling only did two more films, Dernier métro (1945) by Maurice de Canonge, and Jeux de femmes (1946) by Maurice Cloche. In 1946 she married an American of French origin, Henri Garin, definitely quitted film acting and moved with him to the United States. Forty years after, Jeanne Helbling died in New-York on 6 August 1985, she just had turned 82.
Sources: IMDB, Caroline Hanotte on CinéArtistes.