FROM THE HISTORY OF CROATIAN CINEMA

Marin Kuzmić from Split — Unknown Silent Film Star

The text by a distinguished Belgrade early film historian for the area of former Yugoslavia gives information about Marin Kuzmić (1893-?), a film actor from Split, Croatia, unknown until now. He appeared in the film Die freudlosse Gasse (1925) by G. W. Pabst under the name of Mario Cusmich.

Following the pseudonym lead, the text author finds out that Kuzmić acted in eighteen silent films between 1918 and 1928, twelve Italian (four leading roles and four secondary male roles) and six German. Kuzmić began his film career through his original vocation: he was an opera singer who took singing lessons by Francesco Navarini in Milan.

After he had stopped working on the film in 1928, he seems to have worked in theatre and opera in the 1930s which is testified by a signed postcard from 1931 from the series dedicated to famous film and opera stars. The text gives the filmography of his roles reconstructed from secondary sources (catalogues and filmography).

Dejan Kosanović