Françoise Rosay Movies

In this romance, a disillusioned wife, learning that her husband has been unfaithful, divorces him and moves to Paris where she is changed from a frowsy hausfrau to a sexy, sophisticated lady. A wealthy dame asks her to help destroy the affair between her granddaughter and the woman's ex-husband. The woman agrees to do it and returns to the U.S. where she hosts a large party. Among the guests are her ex-husband and his lover--the granddaughter. The wife has become so lovely, that her former spouse does not at first recognize her. When at last he does, their romance begins anew. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set against the backdrop of the French Alps, Motherhood is the melancholy story of servant girl Marthe (Hella Muller). Unmarried and pregnant, Marthe dolefully gives up her baby for adoption, reasoning that it's all for the best. The child is taken in by the wealthy Duchemin family, growing up in the lap of luxury. Years later, the boy Jean (Henri Presles), now a full-grown man, accidentally hits an old woman with his motorcar. That's right: the old lady is none other than his mother Marthe, who promises herself never to reveal her true identity, not even when the repentant Jean visits her in the hospital. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Venerable French character actress Francoise Rosay heads the cast of On Aime Qu'une Fois. Rosay is cast as the self-sacrificing mother to end them all. Determined that her son (Jacques Berthier) will be able to attend medical school, she denies herself everything -- including her one and only opportunity for true romance. What could have been maudlin in the extreme is handled with subtlety and delicacy by the matchless Francoise Rosay. Providing some welcome avuncular comedy relief is Pierre Larquey as a small-town general practitioner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the stage comedy by Charles W. Bell and Mark Swan (previously filmed in 1920), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath is a curious mixture of all that was good and everything that was bad in Buster Keaton's talkie features. Keaton plays Reginald Irving, a dimwitted bill-poster who finds himself the pawn in a scheme cooked up by wealthy Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny). It seems that Jeffrey will not be permitted to marry Virginia Embrey (Sally Eilers) until a suitable husband is found for Virginia's older sister Angelica (Dorothy Christy). Since Angelica has rejected all the available suitors, Jeffrey schemes to offer Reginald as an eligible mate. First, however, he has to transform our dopey hero into a gentleman -- and a great lover. Somehow or other, poor Reginald innocently ends up in a compromising situation involving vampish Polly Hathaway (Charlotte Greenwood) and the very married Nita Leslie (Joan Peers) at a posh no-tell hotel. Keaton is permitted a few choice pantomimic moments in Parlor Bedroom and Bath, notably his scenes with the aggressive Charlotte Greenwood and a spectacular sight gag "borrowed" from his 1920 silent classic One Week. On the whole, however, Keaton is lost in a sea of unfunny dialogue and tired farcical situations -- a not untypical pitfall of his MGM talkies. Long unavailable due to legal complications, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath can be purchased from any of the public-domain video companies proliferating in the U.S. (Incidentally, that baronial "upstate New York" mansion in the film's early scenes was actually Buster Keaton's Beverly Hills home) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of three well-received "omnibus" films hosted by Somerset Maugham, Quartet features four of Maugham's most celebrated stories, each introduced by the author himself. In "The Facts of Life," a seemingly innocent British youth (Jack Watling) is targeted for a shakedown by a beautiful adventuress (Mai Zetterling), while Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne perform their usual brilliant byplay. In "The Alien Corn," a young aristocrat (Dirk Bogarde) hopes to become a professional concert pianist. "The Kite" tells the story of a preoccupied inventor (George Cole) who places his hobbies ahead of his wife (Susan Shaw) as an indirect means of defying his dominating mother (Hermione Badderly). The film concludes with "The Colonel's Lady," wherein the title character (Nora Swinburne) embarrasses her stuffy husband (Cecil Parker) by publishing a torrid volume of romantic poetry. Each of the short tales in Quartet possesses its own mood, pace and rhythm, and each is a gem in its own right. The popularity of Quartet resulted in two more Maugham compendiums, Trio and Encore, not to mention the multistoried American film O. Henry's Full House. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Effective in its message that war itself is idiotic, this slowly, slowly evolving, conventional comedy drama by director Helmut Kautner takes place during the Franco-Prussian hostilities of 1870. Jumping into its main point early on, the story has two soldiers, one French and one German, accidentally changing uniforms when one of them is swimming. Now that they are for all exterior appearances on the opposite side of the fence, they meet up at a farmhouse where a friendship starts between them. They share a few adventures as they help out some people who need it -- and then a potential disaster strikes when some Prussian forces intrude on their private hiatus from war. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

With location scenes lensed in Italy, September Affair is consistently good to look at, even when the pacing flags and the dialogue becomes too verbose. Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten star as married couple Manina and David. Trouble is, they're not married to each other. Through a series of misunderstandings, Manina and David are listed among the victims of a plane crash. Since the world at large considers them dead, the couple decides to start a whole new life together. Eventually, however, the guilt they share regarding their respective spouses overrides their passions. September Affair is remembered today as the film that catapulted a 12-year-old record -- Walter Huston's rendition of "September Song" -- to the top of the 1950 hit parade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His Glorious Night, the first talkie version of Ferenc Molnar's Olympia, is remembered today as the film that ruined John Gilbert. Legend has it that silent-screen-idol Gilbert's voice recorded so badly that audiences laughed out loud when he declared his love for Catherine Dale Owen, though this derision had more to do with his awful dialogue than his (minimal) vocal inadequacies. At any rate, the Molnar original was simultaneously filmed in a Spanish, German, and French-language version; the first two retained the title Olympia, while the French adaptation was titled Si L'Empereur Savait Ca (If The Emperor Only Knew). Andre Luguet steps into the John Gilbert role as Captain Kovacs, a dashing military officer in love with the beautiful daughter (Tania Fedor) of a high-born general (she was a Princess in the original, and she was played by Catherine Dale Owen). The girl's mother, who has slated her daughter to marry a Prince, breaks up the romance, whereupon Kovacs threatens to publicly impugn the heroine's reputation if he isn't permitted a night alone with her before the wedding. He gets what he wants, only to prove that he's really an honorable man after all. Both the French and German versions of Olympia were directed by Jacques Feyder; the property was remade in 1960 as A Breath of Scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide