French actors Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain, and German actors Paul Hartmann and Michael Bohnen played the leads in the Austrian silent film Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925), adapted from the comic opera by Richard Strauss with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 824. Photo: Isabey, Paris. Jaque Catelain in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 47/1. Photo: Bruckmann-Verleih / Robert Wiene-Produktion der Pan-Film A.-G., Vienna. Jaque Catelain and Elli Felicie Berger in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 47/2. Photo: Bruckmann-Verleih / Robert Wiene-Produktion der Pan-Film A.-G., Vienna. Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).

Amorous twists and turns
The Austrian silent film Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (1925) was based on the opera of the same name by Richard Strauss (music) and Hugo von Hofmannsthal (libretto). Robert Wiene, creator of the expressionistic masterpiece Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), was the director.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal considerably changed the storyline of the opera for the film version of Der Rosenkavalier (1925). The film included for instance a final scene in the formal gardens behind the Field Marshal's residence.

The story is situated at the Austrian court. While the marshal of Werdenberg (Paul Hartmann) is becoming famous in the war, his wife, Countess Maria Theresia von Werdenberg (Huguette Duflos), consoles herself in the arms of the young Count Octavian (Jaque Catelain) and tries to arrange the love affairs of her nephew, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau (Michael Bohnen), by presenting him to young Sophie (Ellie Felicie Berger).

This baron is taken with her and the 'Marschallin' proposes Octavian to be Ochs’ matchmaker (Rosenkavalier, the Knight of the Rose) in order to present the traditional silver rose to his fiancée. But when they meet, Octavian and Sophie immediately fall in love with each other...

Analogous to the opera’s three acts, the film’s narrative consists of three main units. These are interspersed with war scenes portraying the world as lived in by the Marshall, who does not appear in the opera. In the film, his character takes on an active role, resolving the amorous twists and turns at the end of the film which, in the opera, are left unresolved.

Filming began on 18 June 1925 at the famous Schloßtheater Schönbrunn in Vienn, which lasted until the end of August after several weather-related interruptions. Other locations were in Vienna, as well as outside, in Lower Austria. Indoor shots were shot in the film studio of Listo-Film. The numerous and elaborate rococo costumes were created by the Wiener Werkstätte für dekorierte Kunst Ges.m.b.H. and the wigs of Ludwig Rudolf.

The production fell temporally in the middle of the worst crisis of the Austrian silent cinema, which at this time endured heavy competition by the cheaply made but qualitative US productions. Numerous domestic production companies went bankrupt at that time. The Pan-Film was one of the few major companies that continued to make films.


Vintage postcard. Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross B.V.G., Berlin. Photo: Verleih Filmhaus Bruckmann & Co., A.G. Paul Hartmann in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).

A formidable narrative power
Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1926) premiered on 10 January 1926 at the Dresden Semperoper (Semper Opera House), which had also hosted the actual opera's premiere 15 years earlier. Richard Strauss' score included music not only from the opera but also sections of his Couperin Suite and several marches and dances from Strauss’ repertoire. Strauss also composed new ones.

During the film's performances, the music was provided by an orchestra. At the premiere, this was conducted by Richard Strauss himself. The film's projection speed had to be adjusted by the projector in order to fit the speed of the orchestra. This task fell to the film's cameraman, Hans Androschin, because only he knew the exact length of each scene and cut.

In later performances, a special recording, also conducted by Strauss, provided the music. Richard Strauss conducted the Vienna and London premieres and recorded excerpts from the film score on the Victrola label at that time. A planned tour of the United States in 1927 by Strauss and his orchestra failed to go ahead because of the emergence of sound films.

Although Pan-film landed her greatest artistic success with this film, the company also went broke due to the enormous costs of this production. For a long time, the film and the accompanying score for large orchestra had not been performed due to synchronisation problems and the loss of the last reel.

After the restoration of the film in 2006 and the reconstruction of the missing final sequence of the film by the Filmarchiv Austria, Der Rosenkavalier was re-released for a television broadcast by German broadcaster ZDF and Arte on 6 September 2006 at the site of its premiere, the Semperoper in Dresden. The musical accompaniment was performed by the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Frank Strobel.

Frank Strobel: "In Wiene’s film, which some consider to be too conventional, the cinematic imagery is just one element within the overall concept. The other is the music, whose interaction with the film is lending it a formidable narrative power. In the Rosenkavalier film, the typical approach to film music composition, whereby the music is written subsequent to the film and functionally adapted to it, is turned on its head: The film’s central element is the music played by the orchestra as opposed to the libretto. The music is served by the film along with its new episodes and is also consistently referred to by the choreography of the actors. This is not surprising since the film was shot after the music."


German postcard by Ross B.V.G., Berlin. Photo: Verleih Filmhaus Bruckmann & Co., A.G. Jaque Catelain, Paul Hartmann and Ellie Felicie Berger in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross B.V.G., Berlin. Photo: Verleih Filmhaus Bruckmann & Co., A.G. Michael Bohnen, Jaque Catelain, Ellie Felicie Berger and Carl Forest in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross B.V.G., Berlin. Photo: Verleih Filmhaus Bruckmann & Co., AG. Paul Hartmann and Huguette Duflos in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).

Sources: Frank Strobel, Wikipedia and IMDb.

The French silent film serial Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) is based on one of the most famous French novels in the 19th century. This serial novel by Eugène Sue was published in a French newspaper in 90 parts from 1842 to 1843. Novel and film delve in the seediest parts of Paris and have a sinister-looking gallery of unforgettable characters, including Monsieur Pipelet, La Chouette (the Owl), Le Maître d'école (the Schoolmaster) and Le Chourineur.


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Huguette Duflos as Fleur-de-Marie in Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922).


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Yvonne Sergyl as Louise Morel.

Great compassion for the lower classes

The hero of the novel and the film is the mysterious and distinguished Rodolphe, disguised as a Parisian worker but in fact the Grand Duke of Gerolstein, a fictional kingdom of Germany. Rodolphe can speak in argot, is extremely strong and a good fighter.

Yet Rodolphe also shows great compassion for the lower classes, good judgement, and a brilliant mind. He can navigate all layers of society in order to understand their problems, and to understand how the different social classes are linked. Rodolphe is accompanied by his friends Sir Walter Murph, an Englishman, and David, a gifted black doctor, formerly a slave.

The first figures they meet are Le Chourineur and La Goualeuse. Rodolphe saves La Goualeuse from Le Chourineur's brutality, and saves Le Chourineur from himself, knowing that the man still has some good in him. La Goualeuse is a prostitute, and Le Chourineur is a former butcher who has served 15 years in prison for murder.

Both characters are grateful for Rodolphe's assistance, as are many other characters in the novel. At the end, Rodolphe goes back to Gerolstein to take on the role to which he was destined by birth.


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Paul Vermoyal as Le Notaire Ferrand (the Notary Ferrand).


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Jeanne Bérangère as La Chouette (the Owl).

City Mysteries genre

The original novel was very long, in some editions over 1000 pages. But Les Mystères de Paris was an instant success, and singlehandedly increased the circulation of the newspaper Journal des débats.

Eugène Sue was the first author to bring together so many characters from different levels of society within one novel, and thus his book was popular with readers from all classes. He showed how vice was not the only cause of suffering, but also caused by inhumane social conditions.

Les Mystères de Paris is melodramatic depicting a world where good and evil are clearly distinct. The novel was partly inspired by the Memoirs (1828) of the French criminal and criminalist Eugène François Vidocq, and by the works of James Fenimore Cooper: Sue took the plot structure of the Natty Bumppo novels and moved them to the city where buildings replaced trees and underworld gangs replaced Indians.

Les Mystères de Paris paved the way for Victor Hugo's Les misérables and founded the ‘City mysteries’ genre, that explored the ‘mysteries and miseries’ of cities, like Les Mystères de Marseille by Émile Zola, Les Mystères de Londres by Paul Féval, and Les Nouveaux Mystères de Paris (featuring Nestor Burma) by Léo Malet. In America, Ned Buntline wrote The Mysteries and Miseries of New York in 1848.

 In 1988, Michael Chabon paid tribute to the genre with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Gilbert Dalleu as Le Maître d'école (the School Teacher).


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Andrée Lionel as Sarah MacGrégor.

Doing Sue's extravaganza justice

Les Mystères de Paris has been adapted several times for the stage and for the cinema. The first film adaptation, Les mystères de Paris (1909) was a short silent film by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset for Éclair. Camille Bardou, who would return in the 1922 version, was in the cast.

The next adaptation, Les mystères de Paris/Mysteries of Paris (1912), was made by Albert Cappellani for Pathé Frères. His brother Paul Capellani starred as Rodolphe.

In Italy, Gustavo Serena directed and starred in a four-part serial, Parigi misteriosa (1917) for Caesar Film. The same year, another Italian film company, Megale Film, produced a competitive version, Il ventre di Parigi (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1917).

In 1920 followed a little known American version, The Mysteries of Paris (1920), directed by Ed Cornell for the Hub Cinemagraph Company of Boston. Two years later came another American version, Secrets of Paris (Kenneth S. Webb, 1922), with Lew Cody as King Rudolph and Montagu Love as the Schoolmaster.

That same year the film serial Les mystères de Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) was produced in France. The 12 episodes were written by André-Paul Antoine and director Charles Burguet. This serial had a stellar cast. Georges Lannes starred as Rodolphe. He was surrounded by such well known stars as Huguette Duflos as Fleur-de-Marie, Suzanne Bianchetti as Marquise d'Harville, Gaston Modot, Charles Lamy and the young Pierre Fresnay.

Then, Henry Rollan played Rodolphe in the first sound version, Les mystères de Paris (Félix Gandéra, 1935). In Jacques de Baroncelli's version of 1943 Marcel Herrand played Rodolphe. In 1957 followed an Italian-French coproduction, I misteri di Parigi (Fernando Cerchio, 1957) with Frank Villard as Rodolpho. There were also TV versions, such as Les mystères de Paris (Marcel Cravenne, 1961) with Jacques Dacqmine.

The best known sound film version is the French-Italian Swashbuckler Les Mystères de Paris (André Hunebelle, 1962), starring Jean Marais. Hunebelle's treatment keeps from Eugène Sue nothing but the proper nouns. Db du monteil writes at IMDb that the film has “a muddled screenplay, even more far-fetched than Sue's mammoth work.”

The most recent adaptation was the six-episode miniseries Les mystères de Paris (André Michel, 1980), a French-German coproduction with Sigmar Solbach as Rodolph. Db du Monteil: “Although its running time is six hours and it's got a fine score, this made-for-TV work does not really succeed in recreating Sue's world. It's too clean, much too clean, the seediest parts of Paris are anything but Dantesque. A good thing was to use a German actor to play Rodolphe but it's not enough. I'm still waiting for the director who will do Sue's extravaganza justice.”


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Charles Lamy as M. Pipelet.


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Rhama. Publicity still for Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922) with Camille Bardou as Le Courineur.

Sources: db du Monteil (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Reutlinger Studio in Paris was opened in Paris in 1850 and took photos of the rich and famous until 1937. Reutlinger was known for their unusual Art Nouveau styles of postcard designs, especially for portraits of actresses. This is the first post in a new series on star photographers.


Sarah Bernhardt. British postcard by Rotary Photo Co., London, no. 228A. Sent by mail in 1905. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no. 13. Photo: Reutlinger


Huguette Duflos. French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no.  16. Photo: Reutlinger.

A Successful Postcard Business
The Reutlinger studio was founded by Charles Reutlinger, of German descent. The studio passed on to Charles’ brother Emile in 1880, who ran the studio until 1890.

In 1883, Emile’s son Léopold Reutlinger (1863) came to Paris from Callao, Peru, where he grew up. Léopold took over in 1890, and he developed a very successful postcard business. He photographed the stars of the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergère.

He became one of the most requested portrait photographers of the Belle Epoque and he photographed among others Mata Hari, Cleo de Merode, Geraldine Farrar, Polar, Colette, Sarah Bernhardt Leonie Yahne, Liane the Pougy, Anna Held, La Belle Otero and Lina Cavalieri. Many of his pictures were sold to leading newspapers and magazines.

Léopold continued to run the studio until he lost an eye in an accident with a champagne cork in 1930. He died in 1937 at the age of 74.



Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 180/1. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 188/9. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Germaine Gallois.French postcard by Olympia / S.I.P., no. 194/18. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard, no. 181/10. Sent by mail in 1903. Photo: Reutlinger.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 865/17. Sent by mail in 1904. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Art Nouveau Fantasy Overlays
The earliest Reutlinger postcards in our collection date roughly from 1900-1902. They feature images of identified famous actresses, singers, and dancers from the day, surrounded by highly stylized Art Nouveau frames. Often, the same frames were used with different actress images in the centre.

In the several years that followed, the Reutlinger studio began to experiment with colour tinting, different stylization, and more outlandish or novel photomontage techniques.

P.K. Hobbs at Everything Vintage: "Léopold introduced a very distinctive style of merging photographic images with art nouveau fantasy overlays. He added to that process exceptionally well-done hand tinting.

The Reutlinger Studio became known for their unusual art nouveau styles of postcard designs, especially for portraits of actresses. These postcards were not cheaply produced, nor were they cheaply sold. This part of his business was very successful and sought-after, as thousands of his art nouveau postcards were produced."

In 1904, divided backs were permitted in France. Till then the back was reserved for the recipient’s address and all messages had to appear on the front. It explains the handwriting on the front of some cards in this post. 


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1342. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Sylvie. French postcard by S.I.P. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Lina Cavalieri. French postcard, no. 1188. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


Gabrielle Robinne. French postcard. Photo Reutlinger, Paris. 04-69.

Sources: P.K. Hobbs (Everything Vintage), Victor (Wonderings), and Wikipedia.

Huguette Duflos (1887-1982) was a prolific leading lady of the French silent cinema of the 1920s.


Italian postcard by Ed. Traldi, Milano, no. 858.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 16. Photo: Reutlinger.


Postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 155. Photo: V. Henri. Perhaps a card referring to Duflos' role as Princess Olga in La princesse aux clowns (André Hugon, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 47/2.Photo: Bruckmann-Verleih / Robert Wiene-Produktion der Pan-Film A.-G., Vienna. Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain in the Austrian silent film Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Wiene, 1925), adapted from the opera by Richard Strauss with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.


French postcard by Wyndham Ed., Paris, no. W 102.

Radiant youth
Huguette Duflos was born Hermance Meurs in Limoges, France, in 1887. She studied acting at the Conservatoire in Paris, first with Leloir, then with Raphaël Duflos. She married Duflos in 1910 and they divorced in 1928.

In 1912, she started to play at the Comédie Française. From 1915 on she was a Pensionnaire and had bigger roles.

However, when film director Henry Pouctal offered her a role in his film L'Instinct/The Instinct (1916) starring Raphaël Duflos, she eagerly accepted despite protests by her stage colleagues.

Eight years before, she had already made her film debut in the legendary Film d'art production L'assassinat du duc de Guise/The Assassination of the Duke de Guise (André Calmettes, Charles Le Bargy, 1908).

Her radiant youth, her expressive charme and her photogenic qualities were appreciated and would turn her into one of the most prolific stars of the French silent cinema.


French collector card (minicard) for Chocolat Félix Potin, third series, 1922. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge by Editions La Fayette, Paris. Photo: Comoedia.


French postcard by A.N. (A.Noyer), Paris, no. 10. Photo: Henri Manuel. Caption: Huguette Duflos de la Comédie Française.


French postcard by Edition des Studios-Rahma, Paris. Photo: Huguette Duflos as Fleur-de-Marie in Les Mystères de Paris/The Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet 1922).


Italian postcard, no. 671. Photo: Huguette Duflos in Koenigsmark/The Secret Spring (Léonce Perret, 1923). Collection: Didier Hanson.


Italian postcard by A. Traldi, Milano, no. 674. Photo: Huguette Duflos in the silent film Koenigsmark (Léonce Perret, 1923).
French postcard.

International stardom
Huguette Duflos played in many films, from L'Ami Fritz/Friend Fritz (René Hervil, 1919) to Travail/Work (Henri Pouctal, 1919) with Léon Mathot, from Mademoiselle de la Seiglière (André Antoine, 1921) to the 12-part serial Les Mysteres de Paris/Mysteries of Paris (Charles Burguet, 1922).

Duflos magnificently performed the Grand Duchess Aurora in Léonce Perret's opulently staged Koenigsmark/The Secret Spring (1923), based on Pierre Benoit's popular novel and co-starring Jaque Catelain, Marcel L'Herbier's fetish-actor.

They played together again in Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight Of The Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925), which lifted her to international stardom. A huge success was Julien Duvivier's L'Homme à l'Hispano (1927), in which she is the rich lady who falls for a man who is ruined but has borrowed a fancy car.

At the advent of the sound era, Duflos went to the States to play opposite Charles Boyer in Le Procès de Mary Dugan (Marcel de Sano, 1931), the French version of The Trial of Mary Dugan (1930).

She also played in two early sound films by Marcel L'Herbier: Le mystère de la chambre jaune/The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1930) and Le Parfum de la dame en noir/Scent of the Woman in Black (1931). In the mid-1930s, she did only a few films. She rather played on stage in revues and comedies.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma Series by Editions Filma, no. 5. Photo: Films Eclipse.


Vintage postcard. Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain in Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Wiene, 1925).


French postcard by Europe, no. 188. Photo: Film Aubert. Huguette Duflos and Léon Mathot in the silent film drama Yasmina (André Hugon, 1927).


Italian postcard by Edizione E.F.A., A. Traldi, Milano, no. 949. Photo: Huguette Duflos in the French silent film drama Palaces (Jean Durand, 1927), released in Italy as Palace.


Italian postcard by Edizione E.F.A., A. Traldi, Milano, no. 950. Photo: Huguette Duflos in Palaces (Jean Durand, 1927).


Italian postcard by Edizione E.F.A., A. Traldi, Milano, no. 951. Photo: Huguette Duflos in Palaces (Jean Durand, 1927).

Deluded in Life
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Huguette Duflos played again several film roles, such as Queen Hortense in Les Perles de la couronne (Sacha Guitry, Christian-Jacque, 1937) with Jacqueline Delubac.

Most of Huguette Duflos' sound productions were commercial mainstream films. One wonders what would have happened if she had had directors then like Abel Gance or Marcel L'Herbier who had guided her during the silent days?

A glimpse of that can be noticed in her sound film Maman Colibri (1937) with Jean-Pierre Aumont. In this film directed by the talented Jean Dreville, Duflos plays a woman in her forties who is deluded in life. She falls in love with a friend of her son, but he abandons her. Here, Duflos showed a memorable performance, leaving aside her usual aplomb and showing a real woman, with her bitterness, and her frustrations, up to her final humiliation.

After the war, Huguette Duflos continued to play in films and on stage, though less frequently. She played on stage in successful plays like Marcel Aymé's 'Clérambard', directed by Claude Sainval.

Her last film role was in Les Petits Matins/Hitch-Hike (Jacqueline Audry, 1962) with Gilbert Bécaud. Huguette Duflos died in 1982 in Paris.


French postcard in the Europe series, no. 1106. Photo: MGM. This card might be for her only American film, Le Procès de Mary Dugan (Marcel de Sano, 1931), the French version of The Trial of Mary Dugan (1930).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 40.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3613/1, 1928-1929. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine (EC), no. 904. Photo: Studio G.L. Manuel Frères. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 999. Photo: Studio Rudolph.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1223. Photo: Ancrenaz / C.F.C.C. Huguette Duflos as Maria de Medici in Le Capitan (Robert Vernay, 1946).


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli, (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), Philippe Pelletier (CinéArtistes - French), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 1 February 2024.