Grand Hotel gallery #1: Erika Blanc

Famed Italian weekly magazine Grand Hotel (published since 1946 and still going strong) is most famous for containing photo-novels starring famous movie stars and articles on various celebrities, but back in the day, each issue also used to feature the so-called 'Grand Hotel gallery' - full-page, autographed color pictures of popular stars (both famous and not quite so famous ones). They're really cool, and I've decided they'd make a nice weekly feature on this blog.

So to kick it off, here's a lovely autographed photo of Erika Blanc - scanned from Grand Hotel issue No. 1123 (published December 30, 1967):

Erika Blanc doesn't really need much of an introduction. She was born on July 23, 1942 in Brescia, Lombardy. Since making her film debut in 1965 she's been a very important and prolific actress in Italian genre movies, and she's still a successfully working actress.

Erika is well-remembered for her many roles in Spaghetti westerns and Eurospy adventures, but she is probably even better known for her many memorable and sexy performances in a long line of gialli and horror films, including Massimo Pupillo's The Vengeance of Lady Morgan (1965), Mario Bava's Kill Baby, Kill! (1966), Mino Guerrini's The Third Eye (1966), Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet... So Pervese (1969), Jean Brimsée's The Devil's Nightmare (1971) and of course her small but unforgettable part as a stripper who performs a kinky coffin-striptease in Emilio G. Miraglia's The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971). Quite an impressive track record, and the versatile, talented and very beautiful Erika is always a great pleasure to see on the screen.


And finally a little look at some of the many different faces of Erika Blanc:

A blonde and innocent-looking Erika in the remarkable The Third Eye

A creepily made-up Erika as a succubus in The Devil's Nightmare

A seductive Erika in top form in The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave

Stay tuned - another Grand Hotel portrait will be posted next Friday!