Trio Con Brio

The Three Transatlantic treats shown above--Rossana Podesta, Christiane Schmidtmer and Shirley Anne Field, in the usual order--are exemplary examples of the wave of European actresses who are currently making a sizable splash on both sides of the ocean by combining refreshing good looks with creditable acting abilities. In recent years, Europe has all but totally eclipsed the U.S. as an abundant source of bountifully endowed talent, closing the Hollywood sex-star gap created by a noticeable lack of home-grown product. And Playboy has kept its readers apprised visually and verbally of the latest distaff stars rising on the European horizon. In October 1965, we rendezvoused with Gaul's golden-haired Catherine Deneuve (France's Deneuve Wave), now captivating U. S. audiences in Umbrellas of Cherbourg and shocking them in Repulsion. In the interest of maintaining international relations on an unbiased basis, we are presenting herewith a similar pictorial tribute to the trio of film lovelies, above, from three other European countries. (At this point, it should be noted that shortly after Mlle. Deneuve's in-the-altogether posing for Playboy's photographer David Bailey, she and Dave became man and femme; and though our blessings went with them, we decided that henceforth, in order to avoid connubial complications in our photo ranks, we would keep a closer eye on our photographers while they keep a keen eye on their subjects.) And now we recommend that the reader give our present three lensed lovelies the first, second and third look-overs they so richly deserve.

The ebon-haired Miss Podesta, a Roman holiday all by herself, was born in Tripoli, but her family moved to Italy when she was five. Like so many of Italy's abundantly endowed signorine, Rossana bloomed early, received her first film offer while she was still in high school. It wasn't too long before her flashing eyes, engaging smile and bravura figure were adding a zesty Italian dressing to such international potboilers as Ulysses (with Kirk Douglas), Storm in Paradise (with Jeff Chandler) and Sodom and Gomorrah (with Stewart Granger). Rossana was last seen on these shores in Naked Hours, which was directed by the pneumatic Miss Podesta's favorite movie major-domo, her husband, Marco Vicario. The costumes that Rossana so cooperatively and conspicuously kept slipping out of for the Playboy photographer were especially designed to accentuate her multitudinous charms and are from her new film, Seven Golden Men (this one written, produced and directed by Vicario, and called Cinecitta's answer to Goldfinger), in which she plays a guileful, eye-filling, Rififi-type adventuress, and which recently garnered a cluster of critical kudos at the Venice Film Festival.

Known to West Berliners as "Liebesbombe" (Lovebomb), blonde, buxomy, blue-eyed Christiane Schmidtmer was recently and, as you can see here, appropriately honored by having a topless bathing suit (the "Schmidtmer") named after her. A talented comedienne whose accented English is of the Zsa Zsa genre, Christiane's off-screen antics include a predilection for oddball pets. Current attraction: a cheetah. Fräulein Schmidtmer's acting career got its start with a touring German stock company; it was there that she developed a light comic touch, though American audiences' first glimpse of her was in a fast-paced melodrama, Verspätung in Marienborn, brought over here under the title Stop Train 349. But it was her role in Ship of Fools, as the Brünnhilden girlfriend of José Ferrer, that set her on the path to stardom. Christiane put on extra poundage to maintain the Wagnerian proportions producer Stanley Kramer was after, but her latest cinemadventure, Boeing, Boeing, finds Miss Schmidtmer svelter but no less formidable as she stars with Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis. With only two major movies behind her, the maiden from Mannheim has already earned the accolade of one Hollywood film critic as being among the most exciting German imports since Dietrich, which is praise, indeed.

A perky, pretty Lancashire lass, dark-eyed Shirley Anne Field grew up in an orphanage, started working in an office at 15, became a high-fashion model and then a many-time winner of beauty contests before making her film debut, while still a teenager, in Dry Rot. Her big breakthrough in movies came when she was given a starring role opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the award-winning film The Entertainer, and proved to British studio heads that she was not only a sultry and delectable dish but a highly competent actress as well. Until The Entertainer, she had played many minor roles, almost all of them focused on her physical and sensual attractions, with very little opportunity for attention-getting emoting. However, moviegoers are now having a Field day in that Shirley Anne has at last been allowed to prove that her acting abilities are on a par with her anatomical assets. As cases in point, we offer her most recent films: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (in which she co-starred with Albert Finney), The War Lover, Kings of the Sun and her latest, Alfie, in which she shares some affectionate nude-in-the-bed scenes with Michael (Ipcress File) Caine. Shirley Anne, whose off-camera interests cover a broad spectrum, avidly follows the fortunes of English auto-racing idols Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees, and the haute-couture carryings-on of St. Laurent, Bohan and Chanel.