Jean Mercanton Movies

In Jacques Tati's charming -- and essentially plotless -- pre-Hulot first feature, Tati is Francois, a contented and happy postman in a small, unhurried French village. Francois is at ease with his job and leisurely performs his duties, peddling away on his rounds upon his beloved bicycle. Things perk up when a traveling carnival arrives in town. One of the attractions at the carnival is a film depicting the United States Postal Service's fast and efficient postal delivery system. The narrator in the film exhorts, "Rapidite, rapidite." Francois takes up the call, and attempts to Americanize his work style. Intriguingly, Tati originally shot this film in two simultaneous processes - a black-and-white one and an experimental color one called 'Thomson-Color' - but was forced to release the black-and-white when he ran into problems printing the color film; he subsequently tinted select sequences, then in the late 1990s his daughter (a film editor) prepared and released a color version of the entire movie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Marie la Misere (Destitute Mary) was based on the stage play by Jean Felise. Pierre Renoir plays a business executive who supports impecunious heroine Madeline Sologne's musical aspirations. When he gets too busy to pay attention to the girl, Renoir allows her to live with impoverished musician Raymond Pellegrin. By and by, Sologne and Pellegrin fall in love, which results in profound emotional complications when Renoir sends the girl a huge cash amount to subsidize her career. It develops that Sologne is only truly happy when she's poor -- something that Renoir never learns, much to his regret. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of a Nation was filmed in 1940, just after the Nazi occupation of Paris. The film traces the fortunes of the Froment family of Montmartre, from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to World War II. Comedy and tragedy are deftly blended throughout; Raimu's visit to the Moulin Rouge is as hilarious as Michele Morgan's loss of an arm during World War I is heartbreaking. When the Nazis became privy to the existence of Heart of a Nation, they ordered its director (Julien Duvivier) arrested and the negative destroyed. Both director and negative managed to escape to the U.S., where a dubbed version of Heart of a Nation was finally made available in 1943. Intriguingly enough, the man responsible for the salvation of the film was a German officer who happened to be a fan of Duvivier's work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maurice Cloche's second directorial effort was Le Petit Chose, released in the U.S. as The Little Thing. Based on a novel by Alphonse Daudet, the film stars Robert Lynen and Jean Marcaton as two brothers. While Marcaton is sober and sensible, Lynen is a poetic dreamer. Forced to make his way in the cold cruel world, Lynen attempts to adopt his brother's level-headedness, but it all goes out the window when he falls in love with pretty Janine Darcy. The film's best performance is delivered by Charpin as a furrow-browed porcelain manufacturer. Almost as good is Arletty as a worldly courtesan and Le Vigan as a flamboyant fencing instructor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lazy college student Jacques (Henry Garat) is forced by his wealthy uncle to take a job as a notary public. Jacques's efforts to keep his mind off his work come to naught when his sweetheart Jacqueline (Meg Lemonier) takes a clerical job in his office. Hero and heroine make love, bicker, split up, and come together again, all to the strains of R. Moretti's capricious musical score. Featured in the cast are the 24 Mangan Tilleretes, an all-girl chorus who appeared in several French musicals of the period. Likewise prominent in the proceedings is French stage star Moussala, whose celebrated legs are amply displayed at several important junctures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her last silent film -- and her last film, period -- Constance Talmadge stars as the fabulously wealthy Princess Beatrice Doriani. While taking a cruise on her private yacht "Venus," Beatrice unwittingly inspires Captain Franqueville (Jean Murat) to fight a duel over her honor. Franqueville kills his opponent, jumps ship and joins the Foreign Legion. By now hopelessly in love with her former employee, Beatrice goes all the way to North Africa for a tearful reunion with Franqueville. Based on a novel by Jean Vignaud, Venus was directed in France by Louis Mercanton, whose 10-year-old son Jean plays a key role. Constance Talmadge's decision to retire after the completion of this film turned out to be a wise one; Venus was yet another box-office disappointment for this once-popular leading lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Croquette, Monkeynuts represents the one-time-only collaboration between British actress Betty Balfour and French director Louis Mercanton. Balfour plays the curiously named title character, a concessions girl with a travelling circus. "Monkeynuts" aspires to be a trapeze artist, but this will never happen so long as the troupe's jealous star aerialist has anything to say about it. Eventually, of course, the heroine does get her chance on the high wire -- a sequence that had to be extensively doubled because Balfour was recovering from a bout of pneumonia. Walter Butler provides the traditional romantic interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide