Douglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events. The Bridge on the River Kwai topped the year's box office in North America, France, and Germany, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
For the First Time is a 1959 musical film directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Mario Lanza, Johanna von Koczian, Kurt Kasznar, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. It was tenor star Mario Lanza's final film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer six weeks before his death. Lanza stars as an operatic tenor who finds love for the first time with a young German woman, who happens to be deaf.
Rossano Brazzi was an Italian actor. He moved to Hollywood in 1948 and was propelled to international fame with his role in the English-language film Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), followed by the leading male role in David Lean's Summertime (1955), opposite Katharine Hepburn. In 1958, he played the lead as Frenchman Emile De Becque in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. His other notable English-language films include The Barefoot Contessa (1954), The Story of Esther Costello (1957), opposite Joan Crawford, Count Your Blessings (1959), Light in the Piazza (1962), and The Italian Job (1969).
Ross Hunter was an American film and television producer and actor. He is best known for producing light comedies such as Pillow Talk (1959), and the glamorous melodramas Magnificent Obsession (1954), Imitation of Life (1959), and Back Street (1961).
Inge Borkh was a German operatic dramatic soprano. She was first based in Switzerland, where she received international attention when she appeared in the first performance in German of Menotti's The Consul, in Basel, in 1951. In 1952, Borkh became a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She appeared at leading opera houses in Europe and the Americas, and at festivals such as Bayreuth and Salzburg. Trained first as an actress, she was admired for both singing and stage presence, especially in the Richard Strauss roles Salome and Elektra. She also performed in contemporary opera, such as the premiere of Josef Tal's Ashmedai at the Hamburg State Opera in 1971. Her recordings include complete operas and recitals. Borkh was awarded the Hans-Reinhart-Ring, the highest honour for theatre professionals in Switzerland.
Mady Rahl was a German stage and film actress. Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, now part of Berlin, Rahl trained as an actress and dancer. In 1935 she made her stage debut in Leipzig under the direction of Douglas Sirk and started her film career in 1936 with the movie The Mysterious Mister X. With her role in the circus drama Truxa (1937), Rahl became known to a wider audience. After the war, she sang with her friend Elfreide Datzig for the USO. She ultimately appeared in approximately 90 movies, several of them for UFA. In later years, she appeared frequently on television, while also pursuing her career in the theatre. She was also the German voice of many cartoon characters and of Lucille Ball.
Helen Vinson was an American film actress who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.
Edith Mathis is a Swiss soprano and a leading exponent of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart worldwide. She is known for parts in Mozart operas, but also took part in premieres of operas such as Henze's Der junge Lord.
Rome Adventure, also known as Lovers Must Learn, is a 1962 romantic drama film, based on the 1932 novel Lovers Must Learn by Irving Fineman. It was directed by Delmer Daves and stars Troy Donahue, Angie Dickinson, and Suzanne Pleshette.
South Pacific is a 1958 American romantic musical film based on the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which in turn is loosely based on James A. Michener's 1947 short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific. The film, directed by Joshua Logan, stars Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr and Ray Walston in the leading roles with Juanita Hall as Bloody Mary, the part that she had played in the original stage production. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Academy Award for Best Sound for Fred Hynes. It is set in 1943, during World War II, on an island in the South Pacific.
The Shrike is a 1955 American film noir drama film based on Joseph Kramm's play of the same name. José Ferrer directed and starred in Ketti Frings' screenplay adaptation.
The Story of Esther Costello is a 1957 British drama film starring Joan Crawford and co-starring Rossano Brazzi, and Heather Sears. The film is a story of large-scale fundraising. The Story of Esther Costello was produced by David Miller and Jack Clayton, with Miller directing. The screenplay by Charles Kaufman was based on the 1952 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Marianne Koch is a German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti Westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician.
There's Always Tomorrow is a 1956 American romantic melodrama film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett. The screenplay by Bernard C. Schoenfeld was adapted from the novel of the same name by Ursula Parrott. The plot concerns a man's unhappiness with his domestic life and romantic relationship with a former employee. The film was produced by Ross Hunter for Universal Pictures, which had also produced the 1934 adaptation of Parrott's novel. It was released in the United States on January 8, 1956.
Loser Takes All is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Glynis Johns, Rossano Brazzi, and Robert Morley, with a screenplay by Graham Greene based on his 1955 novella of the same name.
Never Say Goodbye is a 1956 American drama romance film directed by Jerry Hopper starring Rock Hudson. The film is loosely based on the play Come Prima Meglio Di Prima by Luigi Pirandello. It is a remake of This Love of Ours (1945).
When Tomorrow Comes is a 1939 American romantic drama directed by John M. Stahl, and starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. The screenplay concerns a waitress who falls in love with a man who later turns out to be a married concert pianist. Bernard B. Brown won the Academy Award for Best Sound.
Lisa Della Casa was a Swiss soprano most admired for her interpretations of major heroines in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss, and of German lieder. She was also described as “the most beautiful woman on the operatic stage”.
