Liesl Handl

Biography

Elisabeth (Liesl) Handl, a young Austrian dancer-turned actress, married Austrian comedy writer-producer Walter Reisch, whose greatest Viennese film success was Maskerade (1934). In that very popular comedy, star Paula Wessely played a prim secretary named Leopoldine "Poldi" Dur, whose (fictional) name happens to coincide with the equally fictional name of a scandalous nude model -- leading to numerous misunderstandings and complications. In 1938 Mr & Mrs Reisch moved to the USA, where he enjoyed considerable success as a writer (Ninotchka) and later producer. His wife, nee Elisabeth Handl, acted small roles in a few Hollywood films, 1941-44, usually as young foreign-accented women (in one she played Hitler's niece). But for this second career, in the USA, Elisabeth (Handl) Reisch changed her name to "Poldi Dur" -- which the Reisches had lifted from the heroine of Reisch's 1934 Maskerade! (Perhaps they were trying to avoid confusion with the established actress Elissa Landi.) Just think, if Reisch had remade Maskerade in Hollywood, with his wife playing the lead role, we would have been been confronted with the mind-boggling casting of actress "Poldi Dur" playing the character "Poldi Dur".