Marisa Mell: Reality Star?

Marisa Mell lived during the height of her career in an era during the 60's, 70's and early 80's where beauty, being or looking young and make-up were important for a girl or a women but not as important as it is today with all the reality television shows that are on the air. It is only since the Reagan presidency with all the glamour and style especially created by the first lady Nancy Reagan and being reflected in glamorous over the top nonsense television shows like Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest, that style became more important than substance. And that trend is lasting untill this day sprouting women like Paris Hilton or the Karadashian Sisters, only known for their appearances in the media and red carpet, but not for their brains . A fan of Marisa Mell wondered what she would look like in the present day media circus with all the make up trends of this moment applied to her face together with the make up colors that are now en vogue. So make up artist "Alfags" took to the brushes and with the help of a make up computer programm recreated Marisa Mell as a vamp of today! Karadashians move over! The least you can say is that the new Marisa Mell is quite different from the old version of herself thus making her older self look rather bland and tired. In the end, the only thing that is important is...you like it or you don't! The picture was taken from the movie "La Belva Col Mitra" with Helmut Berger.

"Objectif 500 millions" sur "JT" d' Antenne 2

On February 9th 1966 the second French television channel "Antenne 2" had an item in its main evening news called "JT" about a new action movie/thriller being filmed on the beaches of the coastal village "Lacanau-Océan", not far from the well known town of Bordeaux, famous for its wine and vineyards. The film being shot in a very cold winter wind was "Object 500 million", directed by Pierre Schoendorfer and starring Bruno Cremer and Marisa Mell in the main cast. The director is interviewed by journalist Marie-Claire Gautier. Pierre Schoendorfer tells his motives for filming a heist story about a French army captain aiming to steel 500 million French Francs from the French Postal Office plane with the help of his accomplice played by Marisa Mell. Asked why he choose Marisa Mell the director answered that Marisa Mell is a modern strong women perfect for this role which he likes very much. That Marisa Mell is almost unknown in France at that time is no problem for the director. You can see the entire clip at the end of this item after the screen shots of this news item.

You can see the complete item here

Lucifera (Fumetti per Adulti)

In the past I have written on this blog about a known fact that Marisa Mell was used as a model for the Chilian erotic spy comic Satanka. So one day while researching the life and work of Marisa Mell for possible entries for this blog I saw this picture of Marisa Mell in a Catholic nuns habit while smoking a cigarette. The picture is a publicity photo from her 1964 only British movie "French Dressing". I archieved the picture for later reference and possible usage on the blog! Months passed. Untill last summer I was reading the dark Italian erotic fumetti "Lucifera" and saw these next two pictures in the comic book.

In this story the devilish Lucifera is trying to steal as a Catholic nun the Holy Grail as a token of her loyality to her master and lover in hell the Devil. And nothing ever goes as planned with Lucifera so troubles arise on the horizon and Lucifera has to master them in her own special way to achieve her goals, meaning a lot of seduction and sex! But that is another story!

While reading this story it hit me! Before my eyes appeared the Marisa Mell picture in her Catholic nuns habit. And the resemblance of both pictures and the drawn Lucifera was remarkable. The features of Lucifera like the shape of her eye brows, eye lashes and lips of her mouth were very Marisa Mell-like! So the question popped up in my head: Could it be that Marisa Mell had been the template for the dark Italian fumetti heroine "Lucifera"? Although it might seem far fetched in reality it was not in my opinion. Why? 

 During the height of the dark Italian fumetti in the 60's and 70's like Lucifera, Jacula, Maghella, Biancaneve, Sukia, Jolanda and their male counterparts the publishers were always trying to make their comic book heroes appealing by giving them often faces of well known people at that moment in time. The classic examples are French actor Alain Delon as the private detective "Playcolt" or again French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo as again private detective "Goldrake". 

So if the Italian comic book artists took well known populair actors as a role model for their heroes, why shouldn't they have taken the face of Marisa Mell as a template for the face of she-devil Lucifera?

Lucifera was published from 1971 to 1980 by Italian comic publishing house "Ediperiodici" running for 170 issues. A French edition of the comic ran from 1972 to 1980 for 99 issues and was pubished by Elvifrance. Some very famous Italian comic book artists worked on the comic like Edoardo Morricone, Tito Marchioro and the best known of them all, Leone Frollo, who created the heroine and gave her, her distinguised looks like her almond shaped eyes, thick eye lashes, the curved eye brows and above all the thick flowing hair split in the middle above her eyes by a triangular pony. In fact, you can regard the she-devil Lucifera as the male version of the other dark fumetti hero "Diabolik". He also has the same almond shaped eyes, thick eye lashes and the curved eye brows.

Marisa Mell came to Rome, Italy in the year 1965 and was a major star in the movies and the yellow press in 1971, the year that Lucifera was created, just after the much publisized romance with film producer and club owner Pier Luigi Torri and his notorius club "Number One", hangout for everybody rich and famous, stars and starlets in 60's Rome. So Leone Frollo was quite familiar with the face and body of Marisa Mell and probably found in her the perfect model for his next creation: Lucifera. And he was not wrong about that. Lucifera became an instand hit among erotic fumetti lovers untill this day and age. Complete collections of Lucifera comic books in prestine condition fetch top money at the moment around 5000 euros. And thanks to the modern means of communications like Ipad and tablets Lucifera or Marisa Mell will live on for generations to come, even in color.

The Beauty That Broadway Won't See! (Mata Hari)

During the run up to becoming the female lead in the new musical "Mata Hari", directed by Vincente Minelli, Marisa Mell stayed some time in America. The promotion circus was in full swing in the course of 1967 to promote the unkown Austrian actress in the States. She got photo spreads in magazines like "Vogue" and "McCall's" or was invited to high end functions at state houses, embassies or at private homes of the powers that be, especially in Washington D.C. were the musical was having its try-outs before going to Broadway!

In the newspaper "Toledo Blade" from October 15th, 1967 Marisa Mell gave an interview stating: "I have a higher goal than making one stupid picture after another." She believed that her casting of Mata Hari by Vincente Minelli was to be and would push her career into another direction! In the interview she also told that Minelli selected her for the role after seeing her in the movie "Casanova 70" with Marcello Mastroianni. The audition took place in New York! Although her singing range was not very broad it was enough for what the director Vincente Minelli and producer David Merrick had in mind. 

And so Marisa Mell became the talk of the town or the flavor of the week in Washington D.C. being at the centre of  this gala evening event in the autumn of 1967. Personally I love these pictures of Marisa Mell. Pictures of her can always be catigorized in 3 groups: a) the official publicity photos; b) the photos specially made for magazines or papers, official or unofficial and c) pictures taken by private persons at a function like these ones. They are not staged and show a Marisa Mell in a complete different setting or posture than the first two groups of photos. And they are of course the rarest to be found! What I also like about these pictures is the the theme that Marisa Mell chose for the evening. Her apprearence is very Cleopatra-like, only a few years after the famous and notorious movie with Liz Taylor as Cleopatra. The man holding her fur coat is friend of the moment Bernardo Antonio de Pinho Coutinho Soares de Albergaria Teixeira de Silva or in short "Tony", a diplomat working in the capital. As mentioned in other entries of this blog the American adventure with Mata Hari did not end well for Marisa Mell. The production became a fiasco and never got to Broadway! Marisa Mell was devastated by the failure and took it very hard emotionally. I personally think that one way or the other she did not get over it at all and threw her career and the way she looked at her movies into a complete different direction. Not a good one as time will tell in later years. Thankfully for Marisa Mell in her day and age there was no internet so information, although widespread via television, newspapers and magazines, was still very limited to the countries that they were serving so almost nobody in Europe knew that her stay and musical appearance was a failure. When asked she always told everybody that the musical Mata Hara was a big success in the States and that she made it for several months to Broadway.

May 16th 1992 - "Ciao Amore!"

DEATH

OF

 MARISA MELL

20 YEARS

On May 16^th 2012 it will be already 20 years that Marisa Mell succumbed to her fatal illness “throat cancer” a result of her heavy jet set lifestyle for years in a deadly mix of continuous smoking, drinking and drugs! For doctors throat cancer is almost always a dead giveaway of having abused the body over a very long period of time with the before mentioned substances! Having fought the disease for several months after its discovery employing all the known cancer remedies her ravaged body could not find the strength any more to fight the ultimate battle. It was enough! It was time to go! Marisa Mell died on May 16^th 1992 at 7.30 AM at the Wilhelminenspital in Vienna, Austria, high on morphine to subdue the immense pains of the disease, in complete anonimity from the outside world and above all very alone! No family, no friends, no loved ones were present on her last trip at the time of death! She was only 53 years old! In fact it was not the actress Marisa Mell who died on that day. Marisa Mell had already faded away into oblivion years earlier when she came back out of necessity and poverty from Rome, Italy to Vienna, Austria. No, on that fateful day Marlies Thères Moitzi died, the civilian women behind the film diva “Marisa Mell”, a movie icon for so many men during so many years! Death must have been a liberation for her to finally shed off the heavy burden of living the life of a former glamorous movie star hitting the rocks. When Marisa Mell said goodbye to her friends she always ended before going away with two words:"Ciao Amore!". 

During the month of June in 2002 I was able to visit the grave of Marisa Mell in Vienna. The longing to do so was still there during all those years but in the end something always prevented me to do it!

At the beginning of March of that year my employer called me to her office to tell me that during the month of June she and I would be going on a company paid trip to Vienna to be guests at a classical musical festival in the city of music! And the best, I could stay for several days after the festival while she would fly back to attend business. I had started this new job half a year before during a very busy period at the office, working long hours under heavy strain so this was a way of showing her appreciation for me. A complete stay in Vienna paid by the company for several days, all included! Grand! This had to be a sign that it was the moment to finally visit the grave of Marisa Mell. So it happened.

After my professional duties at the music festival and putting my boss back on the plane home I took a train from Vienna to a little village outside of Vienna to the north of the town called “Kahlenbergerdorf”, where the last resting place was situated of Marisa Mell. Finally!

The village is situated on the right hand bank of the Danube, the majestic stream playing such a major part in the history of Austria and its capital Vienna. The origin of the village can be traced back as far as 1133-1166 in an official document. The village is in reality probably much and much older dating back to the early centuries of our timeline.

Getting off the train the first thing that you notice facing the village is the bell tower of the church against  the back drop of the surrounding hills completely enclosing the village against the Danube! These hills are part of the greater Wiener Wald.

Often in a village dating back to the Middle Ages in Europe the cemetary is situated around the chuch which then forms the centre of the village. This is not the case at Kahlenbergerdorf. The chuch forms indeed the centre of  the community but its cemetary is situated on the slope on one of the surrounding hills.

So at the border of the village this sign shows you the way up to the "Friedhof". When I was there I did not noticed it at first so I had to go back on my track to check if I was indeed walking up the right hill to the cemetary. It is a winding road that takes you up all the way through the beautiful surrounding hills with some stunning views of the landscape with hills almost all covered with wine ranks!

And just when you think "How much further is this cemetary situated on this never ending winding road....?"

The gate of the cemetary appears in front of you on your right hand side of the road. So this it then! The entrance to the final resting place of Marisa Mell. After so many years of longing to visit the place and reading about it in the Erika Pluhar book "Marisa - Rückblenden auf eine Freundschaft" it was the moment to discover what the place looked like! My first impression was that this entrace looked a lot like a cemetary out of an old Gothic horror movie like the Universal or Hammer ones! And yes, the gate was screeching when you opened it! The only thing that was missing was a sudden burst of lightning or thunder above your head!

The cemetary has an historic old part and a newer part. Marisa Mell is burried in the newer part of the lot. This massive cross of Jesus Christ is situated at the centre of the old part of the cemetary and is really imposing when standing in front of it! It is made completely out of wood! I always wonderd why the Catholic religion took a cross a means of torture/death or a cross with a man suffering to death on it as a symbol of Love, Hope and Light! So strange! And that was the first thing that came to my mind again seeing this statue rising up in front of me when climbing the slope to see it!

When entering the newer part of the cemetary you can not escape seeing this little chapel with two kneeling angels in front of you! After the funeral ceremony in the village church the priest together with the casket and the mourners go all the way up to the cemetary for the second part of the ceremony, the burial of the deceased. In this little church the priest gives his last blessings to the deceased. The chapel was probably build at the beginning of 1970's as you can clearly see by the sculpted angels done in a typical 70's style.

And finally all the way up at the top of the cemetary: the grave of Marisa Mell! Looking around you notice again the stunning view of the surrounding hills and the village Kahlenbergerdorf at its foot with the Danube. In the first few years after her death the grave of Marisa Mell had a simple wooden cross. Marisa Mell had no money so the parish priest payed for the grave lot together with a wooden cross. When it was weathered during the next years by the forces of nature it was finally replaced by a massive pink stone to give the grave a more permanent fixture.

Being on the graveyard it gave me piece of mind have fullfilled a long time dream. Finally being at the last resting place of Marisa Mell, an actress that I have admired for a very long time! A longing came to an end! During my stay at the grave the whole time I did not encounter any visitors! It was very quite and sereen with only the birds singing in the trees and insects swirling around one's head. Luckly it was not a very hot summers day with a burning sun so I was able to sit there in peace for more than a hour before going back to the station and journey back to the city centre of Vienna. During that hour I looked back on the life of Marisa Mell and why it touched me so deeply again and again whenever I think about it. A life with ups and downs, love and hate, money and poverty, friendship and loneliness, health and sickness, victory and defeat... and all the other challenges that life throws at you. Looking back on her life, it made me realize that life offers no guarantees and that you should always enjoy every moment of the now and create good memories for you own future self because you never know when it all might end or how life may throw you into a complete other direction than the present, in a good or bad way. In the end, Marisa Mell's life became a constant reminder off that for me! Finally it was time to go and say goodbye! While going down the hill after that hour of introspect I remembered the caption on the back of the Erika Pluhar book about her best friend written by a journalist of a newspaper after having read her book: "Philosphinnen wollten Marisa Mell und Erika Pluhar werden damals in der Schule. Sie sind es geworden, auf eigene schmerzliche Weise." So true! Arriving at the foot of the hill at the entrance of the village, I looked back over my shoulder towards the top of the hill in the direction of the grave saying quitely to Marisa Mell: "Ciao Amore!".

"Doppia Coppia con Regina" - Set photos

In 1972 Marisa Mell starred in the Spanish drama production "Alta Tension" from director Julio Buchs with fellow co-stars Gabriele Ferzetti and Helga Liné. Among fans of Marisa Mell the movie is often better known as "Doppia Coppia con Regina", the Italian title of the movie. What makes this set of photos remarkable is that they are not, as often is done, taken from the film negative but are in fact on set pictures taken by a set photographer mostly working next to the running film camera or taking shots of the action and the stars between the set up of the next movie shots! So this is quite rare to see these on set photos of Marisa Mell during the production of a movie! These photos are not regarded as behind the scene photos because there is no equiment or staff visible on them. On set pictures were often used for promotion of the movie in magazines, newspapers...

The Two "Marisa"s by Helmut Berger

On november 1st 2012, the German publishing company Schwarzkopf Verlag situated in Berlin published a very luxurious photobook on the life of the once European cult movie star and present day always doped enfant terrible Helmut Berger called "Helmut Berger - Ein Leben in Bildern". This book has around 500 pictures trying to give an insight into the life of Helmut Berger from early childhood with his family over his first steps into becoming a world movie star followed by his down fall untill the present day with focus mainly on the many women and sometimes men in his life! All the major actresses at the height of his career in the 60's and 70's have a place in this book like Romy Schneider, Ursula Andress, Sophia Loren... and Marisa Mell.

What is strange about this book is the fact that Marisa Mell appears only on two pictures in this massive book with so many pictures. I understand that this book is a labour of love from the editor for the object of his affection Helmut Berger and that on the most part of the photo's Helmut Berger is in a single pose! Nevertheless this does not take away that Marisa Mell and Helmut Berger had a very intense friendship and even relationship with one another during more than three decades untill her untimely death. Both heralding from Vienna, Austria made that bond very special, giving Marisa Mell a more than special place in his life! I am not even mentioning the drug, alcohol and substance abuse that was common practice between them or being at his bed side after his suicide attempt together with Romy Schneider. So it would only been fair to Marisa Mell that more never before seen pictures were published in this book than the meager two pictures! Sigh! But the brain of Helmut Berger is already so far gone by constant drug and alcohol abuse since decades that he probably hardly can remember his life with Marisa Mell and the shit that he gave her during his life time! During the presentation of the first copy of his book by the editor/publisher a picture appears in the book of Helmut Berger with an actress on the cover of  American "Vogue". Very proudly Helmut Berger tells the editor of his book that he was the first man ever gracing the cover of this fashion magazine together with Marisa... Mell. Sadly this was not true because the actress on the cover was "not" Marisa Mell but Marisa Berenson. 

Thanx to André Schneider for informing me about the existence of this book!

DIABOLIK-La Serie! - Trailer

 

A few weeks ago I was pleased to announce that a new Diabolik television series was in the making and that a trailer was being made for the television markets around the world to invest in and/or buy the series! And here it is! AMAZING! 

Do you want to know more about the behind the scene production of this exciting new series? All the info and some stunning production pictures can be found Diabolik-Behind the scene!

At the moment nothing is known about the actors that are going to play the different parts of Diabolik, Lady Eva Kant or Inspector Ginko!

Can't wait to see the complete series!

Into the groove!

Dedicated to Jochen K. from Graz, Austria, a Marisa Mell fan with a big heart for everything Eurocult movies and music! Thanx my friend!