Do You Wanna Party, Miss Mell?!?

On March 1st, 1962, Marisa Mell went to the premiere of her latest movie "Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee" based on the work of the British crime author "Edgar Wallace". The original title of the crime novel was "Gangster in London" but the producers thought that after the success of their latest Edgar Wallace movie "Das Geheimnis der gelben Narzizzen" it would be better to put another flower in the title in the hope to generate the same box office! Lightning did not strike twice and the movie did not do that well. The years between 1961-1963, Marisa Mell was mainly filming for the German language market while she was living in Vienna, Biberstrasse 9. On this picture, Marisa Mell is accompanied by another German movie actress Barbara Rütting. She had already a more or less established career in 1962 thanks to the enormous success of the Bavarian heimat movie "Geierwally" while Marisa Mell was still struggling to get major parts. They never made any movies together but the German language movie market and the stable of actors playing in those movies was rather limited so they all knew each other one way or the other! Although 12 years younger, Marisa Mell became good friends with Barbara Rütting during the first years of her movie career before she relocated abroad. When this picture was taken Barbara Rütting had not played in any Edgar Wallace movie but that would quickly change during the next years. In 1963, she played in the movie "Der Zinker", which was very successfull and two years later in another one called "Neues vom Hexer", a follow up to "Der Hexer", probably the most famous Edgar Wallace Krimi movie of all time. In 1967, she would finally play for the last time in a Wallace movie "Das Phantom von Soho", based on a novel by Edgar Wallace's son "Bryan Edgar Wallace". During the 60's, the career of Barbara Rütting was at it's height when she played in 1961 opposite Kirk Douglas in the movie "Town without Pity" and a very scandalous made for TV movie "Die Sendung der Lysistrata" together with Romy Schneider. Like many actors and actresses in the course of their career, Barbara Rütting could not keep up the momentum and she also had to move from movies to television. In the 70's and early 80's, her career shifted to television series like the German Krimi's "Derrick", "Der Alte" and "Ein Fall für Zwei". A lot of production people working on the German TV Krimi's had worked a decade before on the Edgar Wallace movies so it was not strange that also the actors switched to that medium when their careers didn't go anywhere movie wise. During the second part of the 80's, Barbara Rüttings' movie career did come to an end. Professionally her career shifted more and more to writing books which she had started in the mid 70's about healthy living, cooking and other practical advice! She even wrote children's books. During this period, she got more and more involved in politics and animal welfare, especially for the Bavarian Green Party and in 2003, she got elected to the Bavarian Parliament. A job she held untill April 2nd 2009. Due to health issues, at the age of 82, she resigned from her political office! She is now living in Bavaria, Germany with her animals.

Thanks to André Schneider for his valuable input!