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!".

"Stiletto"

Everyone working in the movie business can confirm that movie making is a very tricky business! It is often a wonder that movies finally do reach the silver screen after all the hassle the producers went through to make them in the end! So much depends on intern and extern factors in the movie making process. In every actor or actress filmography there are dozens of movies which are linked to a certain star where in the end he or she did not appear in because the movie never got made, fee negotations fell through or was replaced in the end by another often more bankable star. That is a law of movie making that every star in the end has to face  if they like it or not! So has Marisa Mell in her career. Everybody following the career of Marisa Mell knows that she replaced the French actress Catherine Deneuve in the movie "Danger: Diabolik!" as Lady Eva Kant the loyal partner of Diabolik during the early shooting process of the movie. Catherine Deneuve and John Phillip Law as Diabolik did not had any chemistery as a couple on and off screen when their characters interacted. According to insiders it was dull beyond belief and would not have worked on screen. Out went Miss Deneuve, enter Marisa Mell. She and John Phillip Law hit it off from the beginning, sparks were flying and sex appeal was oozing of the silver screen the moment they met. Who doesn't remember now the cult famous revolving dollar bed scene in the movie where Diabolik and Eva are making love! But it did not always turn out that well for Marisa Mell. She also had to endure some projects that never got made, was recast in the end or were made at a later time when she was not available anymore for several reasons. One of those project that she was linked to is a movie called "Stiletto".

The movie "Stiletto" was based on the 1960 novel written by author Harold Robbins, famous in the 60's for his beststeller books among many others  "The Carpetbeggars" and "The Adventurers". Many of those books were in later years turned into more or less successful movies. In "Stiletto" the story centers around an amoral young Italian aristocrat with a penchant for violence who owes his extravagant lifestyle to the favors of a mafia Kingpin. When asked to silence four witnesses due to testify against the Kingpin, the aristocrat is more than happy to comply in a most brutal manner. Only he did not figure on a special agent, one who helped build a mountain of evidence against the Kingpin, entering the scene into a lethal game of cat and mouse with him where loyalty, honor or debt are not any of the aristocrats motives but only the pleasure of killing.

In 1966 the movie based on this Robbins book was to be produced by Embassy Pictures Corporation, a production and distribution company owned by movie mogul Joseph E. Levine. The previous Harold Robbins production in 1964 "The Carpetbaggers" was a genuine box office hit in that year ending on the top spot earning 13.000.000 dollars in revenue. So maybe this movie could repeat the success of this movie! The movie was to be made in Rome, Italy at Cinecitta. Marisa Mell, fresh from her appearence next to Marcello Mastroianni, in the movie "Casanova 70", was cast as Illeana, a role later to be recast by Swedish born actress Britt Ekland. Production went full steam ahead and a lot of money was poured into it! Marisa Mell's wardrobe was made by the most famous fashion house in Italy: The Fontana Sisters! They were the most respected fashion designers at that time working with almost all the famous American and international movie stars starting with Elisabeth Taylor and ending with Princess Grace of Monaco. Their style shaped the fashion industry of that time so dressing up Marisa Mell for this movie as seen on the photo above was a big deal for her. It showed that she was on the right track slowly moving to the top the movie business in Europe and in the end Hollywood would not be far off! The movie stills of this movie were going to be taken by another film legend the photographer Emilio Lari. At that time he was a young photographer breaking into the movie business becoming famous in the same year photographing the movie stills for Barbarella with Jane Fonda! The movie was going to be directed by American director John Berry. John Berry is hardly recognized this day as a name in the movie business but during the 50's-60's he was very famous not for his directed movies but for being linked to the Communist Party witch hunt in America. John Berry could not stand it anymore and left America to live in France! For reasons unknown at the moment to me the production of the movie halted and came to a complete stop in the same year. In the end the movie was to made several years later in 1969 with a complete different cast and production crew. Marisa Mell was already at the top of her fame and was not connected any more to this movie! She was to expensive to be hired.

Summer Fun

SUMMER FUN
 by
Angelo Frontini

Berlin Film Festspiele 1962

Although Marisa Mell was during the height of her career a very public figure in the Italian and Spanish yellow press seeing film footage of her is a rather difficult find. So it is always a treat to see her in a clip during one of her public appearences. And when that clip is even from the beginning of her career in Germany during the early years of the 60's then it is really an one of kind Marisa Mell extravaganza for every fan! 

In the movie world there are only three major movie festivals that have importance for every actor, actress, director and producer. The Academy Awards, The Cannes Film Festival and of course the Berlin Film Festspiele. In the summer of 1962, from June 22nd until July 3rd, Berlin was once again host of this festival. 

This edition would be very special. Only the previous year the East-German government decided to build a wall in Berlin to seperate East-Berlin under Russian influence from West-Berlin under American influence. That was a major shock for the people living in the city. So the focus of this edition was entirely on the cold war situation that was graduately building up between the then two major world powers. 

The city of Berlin became an island in a hostile ocean called East-Germany. From then on everything had to be transported by plane. Film actors and actresses were flown in from all over Germany and Austria or special guests from America like James Stewart

or the in Germany at that moment very popular actor Tony Curtis

who was madly in love with then only 17 year old German actress Christine Kaufmann. They would play together in the movie "Taras Bulba" in the same year and get married the next year! Their marriage would last 4 years and have two daughters. Kristine Kaufman is still very active in Germany as an movie and television actress but also as a teleshopping seller for her own cosmetic line being very successfull making her a very rich women! Marisa Mell would play together with Tony Curtis many years later in the comedy "Casanova".

So everybody who was somebody in the movie business during the early 60's was present in those summer months like Maria Schell, who had already an impressive filmography, but would gain world recognition in 1978 as Vond-Ah the mother of Christopher Reeve's Superman.

 

Hans Sönker was another very famous German actor present at the Berlin Film Festspiele. He played opposite Marisa Mell in 1960 in the German movie "Wegen Verführung Minderjärigen". At that time it was a shocking movie about a high school teacher falling in love with his female under age student while being married.

As a starlet age 23 making her first impressions in the German movie business she could not be absent from this major event. What makes this picture so special is the way Marisa Mell is dressed. The early sixties are still under the major influence of the glamorous 50's. So people, when going to a gala, dressed to the hilt, men in a traditional tuxedo and women in furs and long expensive evening gowns. As seen on this picture Marisa Mell is no exception wearing a white fur, long earrings and having her brown hair done in a very special style that she would never do again in future years. Being a struggling actress this event must have cost her quite some money to attend but it was a much needed investment for the future of her career. Once she moved to sunny Italy a few years later this way of dressing up would become a relict of the past for Marisa Mell. She would never dress up like that ever again no matter what the occassion might be.

Thanks once again to Marisa Mell archeologist André Schneider for digging up this gem!

Bullfight

Although Marisa Mell, Austrian born, loved to live and work in Romy, Italia she also had lost her heart to another Latin country: Spain! She loved the people, the customs and the country very much! Hence she owned an appartment in Madrid for a couple of years and went as often as possible! In the summer of 1969 this photo was taken during a bullfight in Barcelona and shows Marisa Mell at the height of her beauty as still a young women of 30 years old! People often ask me what attracks and fascinates me so much about Marisa Mell! Well, this picture says it all!