Talk:Catherine Schell

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The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 19:57, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

removed reference to John Cleese - was not pertinent to article. Mokwella 06:42, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

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catherineschell.com
I'm going to remove the link to catherineschell.com for the following reasons: So it roundly fails the standards set in WP:EL. I wouldn't be a bit surprised that, when it was added back in 2009, it was a valuable (and maybe official) website, but it's not any more. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:54, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It's dead, and has been so for some time
 * It's registered to an address in Nigeria, with apparently no relationship to the subject of the article. So there's no reason to suppose it's really an "official" website.

1944 is not the "start" of World War II
I am not familiar with Schell's family story, but the statement that the Nazis confiscated her family's estate in Hungary at the start of World War Two is absurd. Germany did not occupy Hungary until March 1944, which is hardly the "start" of World War II. I am not certain if the chronology is wrong, or if this even happened. There's no source for that statement.The German occupation of Hungary was more of a protectorate than a colony if that is the right analogy. The Hungarian government continued to exist right up until 15 October 1944, when the Germans deposed the Regent, Admiral Horthy, for trying to sign an armistice with the Allies, and then installed the murderous Arrow Cross regime, whose major interest during its short existence was attempting to wipe out the surviving Jewish population of Hungary.

During the period between March-July 1944, about 800, 000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz before Admiral Horthy stopped the deportations after being warned he would be indicated for war crimes if he kept that up. Until 15 October 1944, it would be the Hungarian government, not the German government, that would had the power to confiscate the Schell family estate. Admiral Horthy was a conservative Magyar aristocrat, and he normally did not like to act against his fellow aristocrats. Hungary under Horthy's rule from 1920 to 1944 had a government of the aristocracy, by the aristocracy and for the aristocracy. It is possible that the Arrow Cross might had confiscated the Schnell family estate. The Arrow Cross was a fascist party that saw Horthy and the rest of the traditional Magyar right as a bunch of sissies not cut for the business of power. But the Arrow Cross came to power on 15 October 1944 when the SS arrested Horthy, which is far from the "start" of World War II.

I have nothing against Hungarians, but there is an unfortunate tendency on the part of the present government in Budapest to portray Hungarians as pure victims, and to attribute everything that went wrong in Hungarian history to outsiders. The constitution of Hungary adopted in 2014 very badly puts it that Hungary was occupied between 1944-1990 and therefore everything that went wrong was the work of the Germans and Russians, conveniently omitting that both had lots of local helpers. Of course, Hungarians were victims. The way the current government in Budapest, run by the authoritarian Viktor Orban-who is outspoken in his admiration for Trump and Putin and preaches an ideology of "illiberal democracy"-presents history is apologetic in the extreme, for instance portraying all Hungarians as equally victims of the German occupation, and presenting Horthy as some sort of hero for stopping the deportations of Jews to Auschwitz that he at first allowed, and only stopped to save his own life when he was warned that he might hang for war crimes. Likewise, one never know from listening to Orban and company that during the Communist period, it was a matter of Hungarians brutalizing Hungarians. The Soviets were ultimately in charge, but the work of repression was all done by Hungarians, not Russians. If it was the Arrow Cross that confiscated the estate, then it was the work of Hungarian fascists, not German fascists, which does not fit in with Orban's version of history. Regardless, that statement cannot possibly be true. --A.S. Brown (talk) 01:18, 14 December 2017 (UTC)


 * I think for Central Europeans living in the Anglo-Saxon worlds in this era it's a common narrative to have "suffered from the Nazis" or to relativate their own German roots. That's not only true for the "von Trapp" family. She spend  a big deal of her childhood in Austria and Germany, and her family still is.  I'm sure they were qualified as ethic German and granted citizenship. When you watch her first German movies there is no hint of an accent. But after settling down in Britain in the 60s with its long tradition of anti-German sentiment, it was certainly easier to become a "Nazi victim". May be from her side, or her management or friendly press. The list of similar cases is long. Truth is, Europe was indeed full of axis  allies,who didn't care about the jews, (neither did the western Allies).  They were horrified of the bolcheviks and saw Hitler as a necessary evil to finish Stalin. And the Western powers had no big problem reinlisting old Nazis and militaries after the cold war started, for much the same reason. Hungary in particular wanted to have it's territories lost after WW I back. I'd say this whole confiscation story is just another "sounds of propaganda" ...


 * I have to correct myself slightly, tho there are no German interviews with her on YouTube I found some from her brother Paul von Schell talking about his late wife Hildegard Knef. And he definitely has a (very little ) Hungarian accent when talking German.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:9E8:2080:3400:D0F2:A921:7C99:1A7 (talk) 19:57, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Schell as comedienne.
Catherine Schell is underrated as a comedienne. Having read the complaint that Schell broke character by laughing in the Return of the Pink Panther, and remembering only how infectious her laughter was, I rewatched the classic telephone engineer scene. Twice the director has inserted a quick close up of her character laughing at the Inspector. Her amusement was part of the script. Profhum (talk) 05:38, 22 November 2019 (UTC)