Marcella Albani(1899-1959)
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Forgotten today, Marcella Albani was an idol of the European cinema in
the final years of the 1920s, making dozens of films in five different
countries (Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Czechoslovakia). After
sound came, her popularity declined and she turned to writing. One of
her novels "La Città dell'amore" was even adapted for the big screen by
Mario Franchini, her husband. She went
on acting until 1936. After a final appearance in
Luis Trenker
L'empereur de Californie (1936),
she retired from acting and led a peaceful life at the Ligurian Coast.
Born in 1899, Marcella Albani had been discovered twenty years
afterward by writer-director Guido Parish
with whom she formed a very successful team. The couple made nearly all
their respective films together (mainly tearjerkers and adventure
yarns) until 1924 when they parted company. Their first movies were
made in Italy until Parish decided to go to Germany. Marcella followed
her mentor - who had changed his name to Guido Schamberg - there, and
she met with instant success. Very exotic as the elegant Latin lady
against a German backdrop, she enraptured German males in flicks such
as Destin de femme (1923),
Das Spiel der Liebe (1924) or
Sibérie, terre de douleur (1926).
When she became freelance, she was occasionally chosen by important
directors like Joe May, Friedrich
Zelnik' or William Dieterle. One thing
leading to another Marcella Albani made no fewer than fifty-odd films
in only seventeen years. She was not even sixty when, having fallen
into oblivion, she died of a brain tumor. Will she be rediscovered some
day?
