„In person, Suzanne Marwille is a young, distinguée lady with a simple, unaffected and very nice manner about her. She has dark, almost black hair, beautiful grey-blue eyes and a noticeable, calm face.“[1]
There were only 10 women among the authors of screenplays for Czech silent films.[2] Some of them are more famous as actresses, directors or entrepreneurs. This is completely true of Suzanne Marwille, who is considered the first Czech female film star. Less known is the fact that she also had a talent for writing, dramaturgy and casting. After all, she had originally wanted to devote herself solely to literature, and not acting. She mainly admired Růžena Svobodová, a writer and the founder of the Lípa magazine to which Marwille was writing letters when she was young.
Svobodová was running her own literary salon and authored several books about the life of the modern woman to whom submitting to a man is not a matter of course. In 1908, she wrote Černí myslivci (Gamekeepers in Black). An anthology of short stories taking place in the Beskydy forests, 13 years later it served as a basis for the film of the same name with Marwille as the screenwriter and leading actress. Accompanying her during her entire life, cinematography allowed her to draw on the legacy of her idol and develop her artistic talents on several levels. Between 1918 and 1937, she appeared in at least 40 films and wrote the screenplay for eight of them.
Marta Schölerová, the second of four daughters of the post officer Emerich Schöler and Bedřiška Peceltová, née Nováková, was born on 11 July 1895 in Žižkov, Prague. Some of the scarce information about her personal life comes from June 1914 when Marta, then 18 years old, married Gustav Schullenbauer, a 20-year-old volunteer one year into his service in the Austrian-Hungarian army. Four months later, their daughter was born – the future actress and dancer Marta Fričová. The marriage lasted 10 years, which were the glory years of Suzanne Marwille at the same time.
Even though as was common in her time, Marwille was discovered for film in the theatre, she probably wasn’t a theatre actress (the sources vary in this respect). Except for child and amateur acting, she probably didn’t appear on the theatre stage.[3] Film people reportedly saw her not on the stage, but in the audience of a Viennese theatre at the end of the First World War. Not long after, she was cast together with the popular singer and cabaret performer Ferenc Futurista in the comedy The Fooled Comtesse Zuzana (Ošálená komtesa Zuzana, 1918) and in the unpreserved romantic film The Demon of the Halken family (Démon rodu Halkenů, 1918) with the story and screenplay written by Hana Temná.
The Demon was directed by Václav Binovec, the founder and main director of the newly created Wetebfilm, a production company that enjoyed several years of success. Binovec had a taste for cosmopolitan names. The name of his company is a combination of letters W and T and B for Binovec. T was for his confirmation name Tomáš, and W came from Binovec’s internship in the US where he liked to be called Willy so as not to confuse his American colleagues with the foreign name Václav. He also paternalistically included part of his name in the stage name of the young actress.
„Marwille“ was a composition of the names Marta and Willy, complemented by a fancy name – the French version of the Czech Zuzana. The fact that he co-authored her name later led to Binovec’s self-confident, albeit partially justified claims, that it was he who made Schölerová a star. Doing so, he was more successful than Max Urban a few years earlier with Andula Sedláčková, who never shone in films as much as on the theatre stage.
Hana Temná also wrote the libretto for the two-reel romantic drama And Passion Triumphs (A vášeň vítězí), which was supposed to be the actress’s „star vehicle“. In the film, Marwille plays the wife of an ignorant banker who chooses a passionate relationship with a man from the Prague underworld over her wifely duties. Initially, the film was banned in Austria for romanticizing the Prague underworld too much. It only came to the cinemas based on a new decision by the Czechoslovak censorship authorities. The film uses motifs typical of Marwille’s filmography and other sentimental films of the time – a love triangle, a conflict between reason and passion, assuming someone else’s identity (in this case, it’s the identity of a maid whose clothes the main heroine borrows for a dance in a pub).
A certain consistency of the types of characters Marwille initially played is given by her constant cooperation with Binovec, who in this way could shape her star image in line with his business plan. Based on the reports and advertising of the time, Marwille was one of the main attractions of Wetebfilm guaranteeing audience’s interest in their films. Very apparently promoting his films through the personality of Suzanne Marwille from the beginning, Binovec drew inspiration from the international model of film production and distribution.
In the early days of Czech cinematography, films were often made very hastily and under inadequate technical conditions. Their value was as negligible as the trust of domestic audiences and cinema owners. Founded with the help of family money in mid-1918, Wetebfilm was making films on a relatively good technical level as Binovec established his business in a small, decently equipped studio on Vodičkova Street, in the premises of a former art studio. In its day, it was one of the most actively producing film companies striving for a higher technical standard and cosmopolitan style. One of Binovec’s particular measures contributing to a higher production efficiency and higher quality of films was the introduction of collective agreements providing for a regular salary for his employees. In this way, he had a stable circle of staff specialized in specific segments of film production.
In its search for suitable stories resonating with the audiences, Wetebfilm focused on light melodramas and adventures. Books by famous authors were adapted to increase the company’s prestige and the attractiveness of its production. Binovec therefore turned his attention to more quality domestic and international works of literature. Film historians and old-timers agree that also Marwille had a say in enhancing the quality of dramaturgy, being not only the leading film star but also a dramaturgist, screenwriter and art consultant in the company.
The Grey-Eyed Demon (Sivooký démon, 1919), based on Jakub Arbes’s romanetto of the same name, is considered one of the very first adaptations of a classic work of Czech literature. In the unpreserved film, Marwille played a young mother mourning the death of her child. Considered lost is also the adventure drama with elements of a spy film Bogra. In the role of a dancer made to marry a high-ranking official, Marwille allegedly fully developed her talent „which already appeared very promising in The Grey-Eyed Demon.“[4]
The author of the above mentioned review elaborates on his interest in the emerging Czech film star as follows: „Her suggestive appearance is most remarkable in close-ups. The play of her face is so poignant that the subtitles, which are scarce anyway, become completely pointless […] With her perfect acting, elegance and beauty – at times demonic, at other times angelically simple – she has attracted the attention of foreign countries. It would be an irretrievable loss for the Czech film had Miss Marwille accepted one of the several tempting offers she received from abroad.“[5]
According to the film historian Karel Smrž, Wetebfilm was the only film production company „overcoming the critical period of distrust of Czech film while enhancing its quality to be able to compete with foreign films both in technical and artistic terms.“ Binovec, he said, was the first „to understand that if we wanted to produce films actively, we had to get them abroad as well. And if we wanted to get them abroad, they had to be international like most films on the global market.“[6] The fear that Marwille was such a universal artist that Czechoslovakia would soon be too small for her, expressed in the review of Bogra, was a symptom of a relatively early and successful, albeit incomplete fulfilment of this ambition of Binovec. „His“ actress with an exotic-sounding name was seen as a world-class star.
The early 1920s saw the biggest boom of Wetebfilm with the commercial success of most ambitious films of the company competing with international production. The new era was foreshadowed by the megafilm For the Freedom of a Nation (Za svobodu národa, 1920). Looking back at the First World War and declaration of the independent Czechoslovakia, the film was supported by the Ministry of National Defence, which provided the filmmakers with artillery, guns, soldiers, uniforms and ammunition. This was the first time Marwille’s film partner was the Russian actor Vladimir Ch. Vladimírov. Thanks to their cooperation in other Wetebfilm films, they would later become a popular acting pair of silent film.
As noted, at the time Marwille was the key person in the company next to Václav Binovec. According to Radomír D. Kokeš, it was she who represented the „determining axis of development“ structuring the narratives of the different films.[7] In addition to the prominent position among the film narratives, in one case directly indicated in the name of a film (a parody of American detective films called Detective Marwille (Marwille detektivem, 1922)), what contributed to Marwille’s popularity as an actress was the already mentioned promotion of her star personality. Binovec allegedly pushed her name to the forefront of all her films and „was drumming it […] into the audiences in all free spaces in Prague streets.“[8] This was supposed to „make Suzanne Marvillová [sic!] very quickly a very popular Czech film actress whose films would be sought after and whose name would guarantee the success of the films.“[9]
In 1921 alone, Marwille appeared in five new films. Among the most popular was the first part of Irca’s Romance (Irčin románek), based on a book of the same name by Josef Roden, a popular author of books for young people. The main character was adapted for the film by Marwille herself, who also wrote the screenplay. The role represents her attempt to escape a certain label. In previous films, she had played femmes fatales and vamps whose passionate relationships usually had tragic consequences. „[…] her slim appearance, cat-like movements and sensual verve predestine her for the roles of demonic and passionate women, so called femmes fatales,“ said Adolf Branald.[10]
Portraying the high school student Irca, stirring the heart of a bank clerk, added sweet little girls to the actress’s portfolio of roles. Based on the reaction of audiences and critics, this was a good decision, as can be seen for instance from the review in the magazine Československý film: „None of the earlier ‚demonic‘ women suited her as well as this wild, playful child in short skirts and with tousled, errant frizzles. Her performance was the best we have seen in Czech film recently, and we would definitely rather see a few more Ircas than new ‚demons‘, which are not compatible with the artist’s young temperament and for which she is still too young.“[11]
The publisher and writer Otakar Štorch-Marien, a great admirer of the actress, speculated that with her independent, sweet and cheeky manner, Irca appealed to girls of the same age, presenting an alternative behaviour pattern not in line with the standards of the time.[12] And as those who knew Marwille recollected, she also resisted the conventional idea of „womanhood“, excelling in areas where one would rather expect men to be successful.
In her time, she was characterised as a witty, ironical woman, remarkable in appearance and intelligence and well-read in world literature. Staying in good shape, she was purportedly quite sporty in front of the camera, showing the „agility and boldness of a true Amazon.“[13] She was not only described as an elegant and gracious actress, but also as an intelligent one with flexible acting skills.[14] Similarly, she was not only characterised as a careful and caring woman, but also as a wise one.[15] Common to all these descriptions is a light amazement over the number of areas she excelled in, as there were more than one would expect from a film actress.
„We know that miracles don’t exist, but we don’t understand why Miss Marwille cannot find a competent author who would be not only able to write a leading role for the main actress, but also an actual film story, i.e. a dramatic one.“[16] This critical remark regarding Marwille’s choice of roles had appeared in the press before she started writing screenplays for Binovec’s films as well. She found a competent author in herself. Considering that she was probably involved in writing librettos even for those films where she wasn’t officially mentioned as a screenwriter, Marwille’s involvement in shaping her own film identity was greater than was the case for other actresses of the time. Having made Wetebfilm famous with her acting, her need for greater authorial control might have been related to her inability to identify with the heroines of the films she was cast in. Marwille was later recalling her film beginnings in a slightly apologetic tone: „I was shooting such idylls when I was young. But that’s what the times were like.“[17]
The first part of Irca’s Romance was released in Czechoslovak cinemas in April 1921, and the second one already that December. In the sequel Irca in the Nest (Irča v hnízdečku, 1926), the main heroine was played by Růžena Hofmanová, who according to Štorch-Marien „lagged far behind S. Marwille’s Irca.“[18] July 1921 saw the première of The Flames of Life (Plameny života), markedly similar to German expressionist films in its horror motives. The hero of the story inspired by the Faustian legend is a young actor (V. Ch. Vladimírov) building up his confidence again thanks to a romantic relationship with a mysterious art patron. For Marwille, it was yet another femme fatale arousing obsession and a destructive desire in men. In this case, the author of the original story and of the screenplay was Zorka Janovská, originally working as a dramaturgist and screenwriter in Wetebfilm’s competitor Pragafilm.
Binovec’s attempts to enhance the prestige of Wetebfilm’s production included Boxer’s Novel (Román boxera, 1921), an adaptation of G. B. Shaw’s Cashel Byron’s Profession. Binovec and Marwille are indicated as the screenwriters of this drama about the life of a famous boxer. The leading role was played by the professional boxer Frank Rose with Marwille playing his partner, characterised as a „beautiful young woman supporting sport“ in a synopsis of the time. Another adaptation of an international work of literature was Last Joy (Poslední radost, 1921). Marwille based the screenplay on a novel of the same name by Knut Hamsun. The author of Marwille’s magazine profile from the late 1930s assumed that it was she who had encouraged Binovec to adapt Hamsun’s story for the film.[19] Without the interest guaranteed to his films thanks to Marwille’s presence as an actress, the ambitious entrepreneur probably wouldn’t have considered adapting serious literature.
A culmination of Suzanne Marwille’s different artistic talents and extraordinary creative energy came in the 1922 cross-dressing comedy Adam and Eve (Adam a Eva). Marwille based the screenplay on a story by Jarmila Hašková. The film follows the funny consequences of pranks played by the twins Adam and Eve, taking advantage of the fact that they were completely identical. The twins as children were played by the actress’s daughter Marta. Their 16-year-old teenage version was played by Marwille herself, switching between female and male poses, gestures and costumes with an extraordinary vigour.
By dressing as men and modifying their external appearance in this way, the women of 1920s often declared their independence and expressed their disagreement with gender inequality. Considering Marwille’s erudition and her probable contacts with feminist writers and members of women’s associations, it is not off the table to look for an emancipatory tone in Adam and Eve as well. A nice and cheeky play with gender stereotypes in the second plan gives rise to a question whether the male and female identities are derived from their clothes and behaviour, or rather from their wishes, needs and the roles they assume. In addition to the frequent changing of clothes and hairstyles, the performative nature of gender is also emphasized by breaking the fourth wall several times where Marwille as Adam/Eve looks directly into the camera to find reassurance about her identity, which reflects that gender is reflected and plays a certain role.
A successful play with a hot topic that could have easily turned tasteless was also appreciated in an unsigned review for the magazine Film: „In the double role of Adam and Eve, Suzanne Marwille again proved to be a film artist of precious qualities with wit and humour being part of her artistic nature. The way she emphasized the awkwardness Adam felt in Eve’s clothes and vice versa convinced the viewer that S. Marwille’s art includes great characterisation skills. Her performance is graceful most of the time and distinguished also where the situation might be rather risky and delicate.“[20]
Unique was also the film A Girl from Podskalí (Děvče z Podskalí, 1922), a story of the Prague urban proletariat. Marwille wrote the story in an attempt to capture a part of old Prague about to be demolished, something that had been her long-term intention and held an attraction. The story of the lives of common people was shot on location – in the Podskalí area on the right bank of the Vltava. Romantic corners of the capital gave way to different lost and back alleys. The common people social drama featured Marwille in the leading role of a raftsman’s daughter, Pepča. Looking back at the beginnings of Czech film production, Jiří Hrbas noted that the film was a documentary not only about Podskalí, but also about „the talent, knowledgeability and intelligence of our first great film star being the first author and actress to understand the true roots of film.“[21]
In November 1922, Binovec announced to the film press that he was leaving for Berlin to meet contractual obligations. At the same time, due to an economic crisis having hit the original film production as well, he decided for a voluntary liquidation of Wetebfilm. He gradually abandoned film production and ran only a rental company specializing in the import of Soviet films. Faced with a lack of film roles, other actors and actresses returned to theatre roles. This was not an option for Marwille, though, having no experience in theatre acting. Having rejected an offer from Pathé Frères to film in Paris, she accompanied Binovec to Germany.
As early as in December 1922 Marwille was making a film based on Schiller’s unfinished novel Der Geisterseher. As mentioned in a text based on the actress’s memories, „even though she spoke German, she didn’t really understand the local accent, and when the director first explained her role to her in length and detail, she didn’t have a clue what his lecture was about. But it still somehow worked.“[22] It was Binovec who got her the role, and later on she made more films with him in the Berlin Kinegrafia Atelier, such as the romantic drama Madame Golvery, based on an original libretto by Otakar Štorch-Marien.
During the authors’ three-year stay abroad, Czechoslovakia saw the première of Miss Vera’s Love (Láska slečny Věry), based on a romantic novel by Otakar Hanuš. As usual, Marwille wrote the screenplay and played the lead, of a young village girl sent by her parents to study in Prague. In a review of the unpreserved film, we read that thanks to the role of Vera, similar to her playful and wild Irca, Marwille had a chance to „show all the varieties of her acting nuances, smiles and movements letting out a geyser of youthful freshness.“[23]
Even though journalists‘ fears that Marwille would succumb to the temptation of international film offers were confirmed, she remained very popular in Czechoslovakia even in her absence. In January 1923, the U Vejvodů Cinema in Prague’s Old Town carried out a survey among its visitors about the most popular cinema star and film. First and second came Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Suzanne Marwille finished in fifth place. Her A Girl from Podskalí came sixth among films. In February 1923, the magazine Pražský ilustrovaný zpravodaj published an article called Our Film Stars (Naše kinohvězdy)[24] with seven actresses presenting the best of Czechoslovak film. The first was Suzanne Marwille, who was also given the most space, while the other six colleagues only supported her.
Marwille’s return from Germany marked the end of her fruitful cooperation with Binovec. Moreover, there was a judicial epilogue to their farewell with Marwille seeking to recover unpaid fees from her former business partner. Even though little is known about the nature of their dispute, we can assume that Marwille felt her contribution to Wetebfilm was not (financially) valued enough. Probably in 1926 Marwille got married for the second time. Her husband and the father of her daughter Eva was the civil engineer František Hess.
In the years following the end of her cooperation with Binovec, the frequency of Suzanne Marwille’s roles was significantly lower. She didn’t have a permanent contract and was cooperating with different production companies. Also her creative involvement in films was lower; she is not directly linked as a screenwriter with any film not made by Binovec.
In the military farce The Six Musketeers (Šest Mušketýrů, 1925), Marwille only played a cameo role, as the lover of an Imperial-Royal soldier. She also played a supporting role in the sentimental Parnasia (Parnasie, 1925). In 1926, she again cooperated with Vladimírov, this time in the historical drama Babinsky (Babinský, 1926), which Vladimírov directed, wrote the screenplay for and played the leading role of the charismatic outlaw, charming Marwille in the role of a countess – a woman from a different social class. However, the stars are not aligned in favour of their love, and after years of separation, they only meet at the end of Babinsky’s life. As such, the role was in line with Suzanne Marwille’s earlier tragic and elegant heroines.
In 1928, Marwille married the director and screenwriter Martin Frič, who would creatively participate in the most remarkable films of her late carrier. The first to première was The House of Lost Happiness (Dům ztraceného štěstí, 1927), considered a high point of her career by reviewers. The film was directed by Josef Rovenský, who wrote the screenplay together with Frič. We can only get some perspective on the lost film from the reactions of the time. Once again, Otakar Štorch-Marien couldn’t control his excitement about the leading actress, who in his view „had a quality of Moscow actresses, of great tragedians finding their most absolute values not in affectedness, but in inner truthfulness. Miss Marwille’s Ludmila is one of the best tragic roles of the Czech film with the hope that this is only a start of Miss Marwille’s entire new era being one of the most joyful things about this film.“[25]
One of Suzanne Marwille’s top melodramas was Love Led Them through Life (Životem vedla je láska, 1928), yet another product of the cooperation between screenwriters Josef Rovenský and Martin Frič. Full of emotive plot twists, the film was based on a serial novel of the same name published in the magazine Hvězda československých paní a dívek. Marwille plays one of two friends leaving their home village in hope of finding love and happiness in the city. Instead, they face several problems with lovers, children and jobs. Marwille thus could prove herself in both her most frequent roles – as a common girl of the people and a distinguished woman from a big city. A film of unique artistic qualities was Frič’s Father Vojtech (Páter Vojtěch, 1928) in which Marwille played alongside one of the most capable directors of early Czechoslovak film – Karel Lamač. Also in this case, she played a woman torn between two men and between her village and a town.
In 1929, Frič directed two films featuring his wife. One was The Organist at St. Vitus‘ Cathedral (Varhaník u sv. Víta), a world-class work with a stellar cast and inspired by foreign films on the levels of dramaturgy, production and cinematography. With her hair cut short (reminiscent of one of the “modern women”, Louise Brooks), Suzanne Marwille plays the foster child Klára. Her face with a focused look is often turned directly to the camera in close-up, maybe in an attempt to remind audiences of Marwille after her years out of the spotlight.
However, it was Frič to whose fame and successful career The Organist contributed the most and who proved himself as one of the great filmmakers of Czechoslovak film. The other film made that same year was Poor Girl (Chudá holka). In the expressive melodrama, Marwille again played a village girl trying to fit in after moving to the city but falling prey to several men. Frič’s and Marwille’s last silent film, Everything for Love, was made a year later and is believed to be lost.
With the advent of sound, Suzanne Marwille’s career basically ended. After that, she only appeared in three films by Frič: Sister Angelika (Sestra Angelika, 1932), Adjutant to His Highness (Pobočník jeho výsosti, 1933), and The Hordubals (Hordubalové, 1937); however, in neither of them were her acting and especially her voice very convincing. Even though she didn’t appear in many films, she remained active in the film industry. For instance in 1931, she became a member of the ČEFID Czech film production co-operative founded by Václav Wassermann and chaired by Martin Frič. The co-operative appealed to production and rental companies and cinemas to create a basis for the acquisition of domestic production capital. They wanted production and rental companies to only dispose of a certain percentage of capital in producing films and for cinemas to guarantee the rest.
Little appreciated remains Suzanne Marwille’s contribution to the artistic qualities of her husband’s sound films. In his series of memories about Martin Frič published in the magazine Záběr, Jiří Hrbas calls Marwille a „special engine of Martin’s life“ and his „wife, friend, colleague, inspirer and creative partner.“[26] Another of Hrbas’s recollections, this time for Film a doba magazine, implies that the cast of his films was always very important for Frič. It was in casting where he allegedly often followed the recommendations of his wife, who „had a very strong instinct when it came to different types of people“[27] and was „very sensible and capable in assessing the character and artistic talents of people.“[28]
However, Marwille allegedly advised Frič not only in casting, but also in film dramaturgy. „Suzanne Marwille kept reminding them that the plot had to be structured in a closer, more compact and more robust way,“ writes Hrbas in summarizing her authorial contribution to the very popular school comedy School Is the Foundation of Life (Škola, základ života, 1938) with the screenplay co-written by Václav Wasserman and the author of the theatre play of the same name, Jaroslav Žák.[29]
Martin Frič continued as a director until his death in 1968. Considering they were partners both in their personal and professional lives, one can assume that also Suzanne Marwille, having died six years earlier, remained active in Czechoslovak cinematography, albeit no longer as one of its brightest film stars, but one of many women in the background yet to be fully appreciated.
Notes:
[1] Suzanne Marwille. Hollywood 1928, y. 2, No. 1, p. 2.
[2] In addition to Suzanne Marwille, it was Anna Benhartová, Thea Červenková, Beatrice Dovská, Zorka Janovská, Zet Molas, Andula Sedláčková, Květoslava Semonická, Hana Temná, and Anna Ziegloserová.
[3] […] her performance on an amateur student stage cannot really be considered a preparation. „As a child, she was often acting with Popelka Bilianová,“ states her profile in Hollywood magazine. Suzanne Marwille. Hollywood 1928, y. 2, No. 1, p. 2.
[4] Posudky předváděných filmů. Československý film, No. 26–27, 23/10/1919, p. 5.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Smrž, Karel, Film: podstata, historický vývoj, technika, možnosti a cíle kinematografu. Praha: Prometheus, 1924, pp. 284–285.
[7] Kokeš, Radomír D., Filmové herectví, česká němá kinematografie a otázky studia stylu. Iluminace No. 2, y. 30, 2018, p. 54.
[8] Dr. B. R., Návrat první filmové star: Suzanne Marville. Kinorevue, 07/06/1937, pp. 132–133.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Branald, Adolf, My od filmu. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1988, p. 418.
[11] -k, Irčin románek. Československý film No. 8, 01/05/1921, p. 6.
[12] „Marwille’s Irca became an idol of many girls‘ fantasies and dreams […]“ Štorch-Marien, Otakar, Sladko je žít. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1966, p. 126.
[13] -ský, Marwille detektivem. Film, 12/04/1922, No. 4–5, p. 7
[14] Smrž, Karel, Dějiny filmu. Praha: Dužstevní práce, 1933, p. 658; -ksž, Chudá holka. Studio: měsíční revue pro filmové umění, y. 2., 1930, No. l, p. 28.
[15] Hrbas, Jiří, Martin Frič. Lidový vypravěč IV. Film a doba, 04/1972, p. 184.
[16] Suzanne Marville. Kinopublikum 30/04–06/05/1920.), p. 3.
[17] Hrbas, Jiří, Svět Martina Friče. Záběr 18/02/1971, p. 5.
[18] Tabery, Karel, Filmová publicistika Otakara Štorcha-Mariena. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 2004, p. 34.
[19] „This was a beautiful piece of direction by Binovec, this film adaptation of Hamsun’s lovely novel, which was undoubtedly initiated by Marvillová [sic!], who wrote the screenplay herself.“ Dr. B. R., Návrat první filmové star: Suzanne Marville. Kinorevue, 07/06/1937, p. 133.
[20] Nové české filmy. WETEB-Film. Adam a Eva. Film, 16/08/1922, No. 11, p. 11.
[21] Hrbas, Jiří, Kapitoly o našem a světovém filmu III. Film a doba, y. 17, No. 4, 1971, pp. 178–179.
[22] Suzanne Marwille. Hollywood 1928, y. 2, No. 1, p. 2.
[23] F. L. M., „Láska slečny Věry“ v českém filmu. Český filmový svět, y. 2, No. 2, 1922, p. 14.
[24] Naše kinohvězdy. Pražský ilustrovaný zpravodaj 1923, 16/02, p. 4.
[25] Tabery, Karel, Filmová publicistika Otakara Štorcha-Mariena. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 2004, pp. 41–42.
[26] Hrbas, Jiří, Svět Martina Friče. Záběr 16/09/1971, p. 4
[27] Hrbas, Jiří, Martin Frič. Lidový vypravěč. Film a doba, 01/1972, p. 16.
[28] Hrbas, Jiří, Martin Frič. Lidový vypravěč II. Film a doba, 02/1972, p. 69.
[29] Ibid, p. 75.
