Josette Day Movies

The second of director Julien Duvivier's sound pictures, Hier Spricht Berlin was also released as Allo Berlin? Ici Paris! Two male telephone operators from Berlin fall in love with two female receptionists in Paris, even though they've never met. After carrying on a "courtship by wire" for several months, the two heroes and the two heroines vow to meet each other face-to-face. Alas, some unexpected obstacle always seems to pop up to keep the boys and girls apart -- until the very, very end. This bilingual romantic comedy boasts an impressive continental cast, headed by Karel Stepanek. Wolfgang Klein, Josette Day and Germain Aussey (Stepanek, like director Duvivier, would later spend several years in Hollywood). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jean Cocteau's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (originally released in France as La Belle et la Bête) stars Josette Day as Beauty and Jean Marais as the Beast. When a merchant (Marcel André) is told that he must die for picking a rose from the Beast's garden, his courageous daughter (Day) offers to go back to the Beast in her father's place. The Beast falls in love with her and proposes marriage on a nightly basis; she refuses, having pledged her troth to a handsome prince (also played by Marais). Eventually, however, she is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. The film features a musical score by Georges Auric. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French melodrama was originally released in 1938 as Education de Prince. Comic actor Fernand Charpin plays the Bargekeeper, whose daughter (Josette Day) falls in love with prince-in-exile Sascha (Robert Lynen). Wealthy baron Cercieux (Louis Jouvet) raises enough money to restore Sascha to his throne, but this will require a marriage of convenience to a worthy member of royalty. Refusing to renounce his sweetheart, Sascha cleverly arranges to ascend to the throne and marry the girl of his dreams -- but it takes a heap of operetta-style plotting to do so. By the time the New York censors were finished with The Barge-Keeper's Daughter, it had been shorn by nearly three reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1936 but not released in the US until 1940, Julien Duvivier's Man of the Hour (L'Homme du Jour) was, believe it or not, Maurice Chevalier's first French starring feature (all of his previous vehicles had been made in Hollywood or London). Chevalier plays a dual role: "Himself", the well known singer-boulevardier, and a humble stage electrician named Alfred Boulard. The hero of the occasion is Boulard, who attains fame and fortune after donating blood to save the life of stage actress Mona Talia (Elvira Popesco). His sudden celebrity goes directly to Boulard's head, and soon he is impossible to be around. In the end, Mona teams up with Boulard's boarding-house companions to teach him a lesson. Critics in 1936 were overwhelmed with the scene in which both Chevaliers sing together, though that sort of thing was already kid stuff in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Well-Digger's Daughter served to reunite star Raimu and writer/director Marcel Pagnol, who'd earlier scored an international hit with the "Marseilles trilogy" (Fanny, Marius, Cesar). The title character played by Josette Day, is impregnated by aviator George Gray. Her father, Raimu, orders Josette out of the house so that her younger sisters won't be likewise "corrupted". There's many a moment of pathos and hilarity before Raimu realizes the folly of his behavior. Filmed in 1940, just after France's acquiescence to their Nazi conquerors, The Well-Digger's Daughter didn't make it to the US until 1946. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide