Ilona was married four times, including a marriage to actor Alan Curtis. She became an American citizen in 1946 but continued to be a fervent anti-communist and a strong supporter of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters.

Ilona died of cancer on August 30th, 1974. Her fourth husband, General Donald S. Dawson survived her.

Charles Ruggles is Nicki, the Prince’s aide-de-camp who has an eye for ladies and a penchant for cooking.

Born Charles Sherman Ruggles on February 8th 1886 in Los Angeles California, he was the older brother of director Wesley Ruggles. A veteran character actor of stage, screen, radio, and television, Charlie was gifted with exceptional comedic timing and expression. He was most often cast as whimsical fathers and henpecked husbands (often with Mary Boland) so the role of “Nicki” was something new. In the 1950s he went back to the stage and and, in 1959, received a Tony award for his role in Broadway’s “The Pleasure of Your Company” a role he recreated on film in 1961 movie. Disney films like “Son of Flubber” followed in the 1960’s. Charlie Ruggles was married and divorced twice. He died of cancer on December 23, 1970 at 84.

Joyce Compton is Masha, Lydia’s maid, whose heart belonged to Nicki..

She was born Eleanor Hunt on January 27th, 1907 in Lexington Kentucky but her parents traveled so she went to schools in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Canada. After Joyce won a beauty contest, her parents took her to Hollywood with their eyes on a movie contract. Joyce never became a big star but she did appear in over 146 feature films (many as a dumb blonde) and some were so low budget she had to provide her wardrobe out of her own closet.

After she left acting, Joyce took up nursing as a second career. She was married and divorced once, a union that lasted only 3 months. Joyce Compton died on October 13th 1997 at the age of 90.

Lionel Atwill was Professor Marakov, Lydia’s father, a Bolshevist militant but a reluctant assassin.

Lionel Alfred William Atwill was born on March 1, 1885 in Croyden, a suburb of London, England and made his stage debut in 1905 at the age of 20. In 1915 he left London with actress Lilly Langtry to do a play on Broadway and stayed to do vaudeville. Mystery, intrigue and scandal seemed to follow him even to Hollywood in 1932 and soon the matinee idol image dissolved into character parts as mad doctors and sinister spies. Lionel’s role in “Balalaika” is far less sinister.

Lionel married 5 times. He had a son from his second wife who was killed in action during WWII. Another son, to his fifth wife, was born 6 months before his death from bronchial cancer on April 22nd, 1946 at age 61. His death came suddenly while he was working on a serial “Lost City of the Jungle” and the film had to be rewritten midway though the sho

C. Aubrey Smith was General Karagin, Prince Peter’s father and the prime target for Bolshevist assassins. Seeing Smith as other than a tall, regal Englishman is a bit unsettling. He has played British gentlemen in almost all of his 109 films…because he was a British gentleman!

Born Charles Aubrey Smith on July 21st 1863 in London, England, he graduated from Cambridge University and became a world class cricket player. In 1893 he made his debut on the London stage and by the 1900s he crossed the Atlantic to Broadway. C. Aubrey Smith was over 50 years old when he finally began his movie career. He was knighted in 1944 (O.B.E.) and remained married to wife Honor Smith until his death.

C. Aubrey Smith died on December 20th 1948 of pneumonia. He was 85. His last film “Little Women” was released the year after his death.

Dalies Frantz was Dimitri, Lydia’s brother…a talented pianist and a fervent young Bolshevist.

Dalies only made 3 films (and two of them were with Nelson). He did piano accompaniment for Nelson and Jeanette in “Sweethearts” appearing as himself, and played the non-musical role of Dr. Joe Barnes in “I take this Woman” (1940) with Spencer Tracy.

He was born Dalies Erhard Frantz on January 9th, 1908 in Lafayette, Colorado and began studying piano at the age of seven. By the age of 9 he was considered a prodigy and at 22 received a Bachelor of Music degree with highest honors at the University of Michigan.

His brilliance as a pianist and handsome good looks won him Hollywood’s attention, but he hoped eventually to make a movie where the piano would be featured in the same way Stokowski and his orchestra was featured in “Music for Millions”. When that became impossible he left films for a career in teaching. His sole scene in “Balalaika” where he energized the crowd in the town square was superb.

Reinhold Schünzel was an actor/director in Germany brought to Hollywood by L.B. Mayer in the same European talent scoop that brought us Ilona Massey. But his directorial career was limited to only a few films and he soon resumed his acting career.

Schünzel was born November 7th 1886 in Hamburg Germany and pursued business and journalism careers before turning to the stage during WWI. He directed “Viktor und Viktoria” in 1933, the forerunner to Blake Edwards’ hilarious 1982 hit “Victor/Victoria”. He returned to Germany shortly before his death from heart disease on November 11, 1954. He was 68 years old.