eMoviePoster.comAuction History Result 4d025 CONFESSION 8x10 still '37 Basil Rathbone stares at beautiful Kay Francis with pearls! Date Sold 1/17/2016Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical 8" x 10" [20 x 25 cm] Movie Still (Learn More) Confession, the 1937 Joe May older-man-seduces-young-girl-and-years-later-she-kills-him melodrama (about a pretty teen music student, who is seduced by a famous concert pianist, but he makes the mistake of taking her to a club where an earlier conquest of his has now been reduced to being a sleazy lounge singer, and when the older woman sees him with a would-be new conquest, she shoots and kills him and is put on trial for murder!) starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Basil Rathbone, Jane Bryan, Donald Crisp, Veda Ann Borg, Ben Welden, and Mary Maguire. Note that this movie has a fascinating origin! It was inspired by a real life 1930 murder case in Europe. In 1931, it was adapted into the American movie, "Millie", starring Helen Twelvetrees, but even in that pre-Code time, the details of the case had to be altered. In 1935, producers Arnold Pressburger and Gregor Rabinovitch decided to make a German version called "Mazurka", and they hired Pola Negri to come over from the U.S., where her career was winding down. The movie ran into trouble, probably partially because Pressburger and Rabinovitch were "not Aryan" (they would soon both leave Germany), and partially because it was rumored that Negri had had an affair with Hitler, and Goebbels was afraid her making a movie in Germany could cause a scandal, but the movie WAS made, and everyone agreed it was excellent. Warner Bros. liked the movie so much that they bought the rights to it, intending to have Bette Davis star in this American version of it, but it ended up starring Kay Francis, and it was originally called "One Hour of Romance", before they settled on this title, and released it in 1937. It was almost a scene-by-scene remake of this original German version, and Warner Bros. bought the American rights to the German movie and did not allow it to be shown in the U.S., for fear that it would hurt this movie. To this day, "Mazurka" can only be seen in unsubtitled prints (and of course, it would be great to have a modern remake of it)! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that this still is part of an amazing collection of 204 scene stills we are auctioning in this set of auctions. All of them were collected by David Mallery, a noted Philadelphia film critic/college professor of the 1960s to the 1990s. He had a great love of movies, and he would go to memorabilia shows and shops in the 1960s and 1970s and he assembled a collection of great original stills from films he loved! He put them into scrapbooks using double-stick tape on the back of each still, and sometimes he would type a paragraph about that movie and put that in the scrapbook as well. After his passing, his scrapbooks were obtained from his estate, and the stills were carefully removed from the scrapbook pages, but the double-stick tape was left on the back of the stills, although the "sticky" part on the face of the tape was removed. In almost all cases, the tape did not affect the front of the still. It can be removed by a professional or talented amateur, but it has not harmed the still in the many decades since it was first placed in the scrapbook, so I really don't see a reason to do so, but that will be the choice of the new owner of each still! Mr. Mallery naturally had excellent taste in movies, and he was collecting at a time when you could find great original scene stills from the very best movies (but even in the 1960s and 1970s, it took some work to find them!). This is a rare opportunity to acquire truly great and rare original vintage stills, and they have a wonderful "provenance" as well! Here is more information about David Mallery. He was a professor of cinematography at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, from the 1960s into the 1990s. He was a founding member of AFI (American Film Institute), and a member of the Motion Picture Academy. He was a film critic who wrote many reviews for many publications, and hosted a TV show where he interviewed directors, actors, and others involved in the film industry. Over the years, he developed both working and personal relationships with many actors, actresses, and directors, including Frank Capra and his wife, Charlton Heston and others. eMoviePoster.com will be auctioning letters from these celebrities and others to Mr. Mallery in their next auction of signed items! Condition: good. The still was once mounted to an album page (see above). It has clear tape on the back of three borders (see our images). There are staple holes in the top center of the still, including in Rathbone's hair. Learn More about condition grades
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