Tamara Desni

Feb 25 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THIS darling of the British stage, raised in Berlin between the world wars, had inviting lips, shapely legs and five husbands – as was eagerly noted by an adoring public during her career, in which she helped save a magnificent London theatre and duetted with Laurence Olivier, when he was courting the fiery Vivien Leigh.

Some years later, she plotted with gangsters to unleash death-rays on the world, in one memorable moment telling her lover’s vicious henchman, “You’re getting jumpy, Fingers”.

It is was a life of fizz and romance, lived at a hot-puffing pace.

She was born in Berlin, the daughter of Xenia Desni, a film actress, and James Brodsky, who left the family to settle in the USA. The mother was anxious that Tamara should follow her on to the stage, but first the headstrong teenager married the dentist, Hans Wilhelm.

But they swiftly broke up and she made German films before settling in England with her mother in 1931.

Her looks and vivacious personality immediately appealed, and Miss Desni starred in the operetta, White Horse Inn, at the Coliseum.

Her performance, on a stage transformed into the Tyrol, was hailed, helping restore the teetering fortunes of the old theatre. She followed that with the almost equally successful Casanova, with music by the young Johann Strauss.

Films took her into the company of big stars and in Falling For You she appeared with Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge.

Then came Fire over England (1936) a Spanish/English war-at-sea romp, hinting at the need to check the Nazis, starring Olivier and Leigh, who had embarked on their legendary affair, though it was Miss Desni who sang The Spanish Lady’s Love with him.

She was a cabaret performer in The Squeaker, an underworld thriller, and might at this stage have enjoyed the success of her compatriot, Marlene Dietrich.

A move to France resulted in two children and marriage to Albert Lavagna, which lasted for 50 years, in sharp contrast to her earlier betrothals.

A return to the screen in Dick Barton at Bay (1950), was Hammer’s interpretation of the popular radio hero, who was after a death-ray gang, one of whom is three-fingered.

“A critique would be irrelevant,” opined Halliwell’s.

She then ran an inn with her husband in the Alpes Maritimes, France.

Tamara Desni, actress; born October 22, 1911, died February 7, 2008.