Guy Lefranc Movies

This comedy-tinged crime drama finds the detective San Antonio (Gerald Barray) and his sidekick Beru (Jean Richard) hot on the trail of some thugs who have stolen some morphine. They trace the thief to a house, but the prime suspect is found murdered. The house is full of hookers, much to the delight of the two detectives, but the drugs are gone. The crooks raid another home thinking they have found the morphine, but they mistakenly grab some small bottles that contain a virus. San Antonio and Beru go after the thugs before the virus can be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

San Antonio (Gerarnd Barray) is a suave French police inspector who pretends to turn criminal in order to infiltrate a gang lead by Eastern block scientists. Highlights include two parachuting enemies who battle each other in a free-fall as they plummet to the ground. Jean Richard provides comedy relief as the detective's sidekick in this routine spy actioner. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The eponymous French corporal, played by Jean-Pierre Cassel, is ensconced in a German POW camp. Cassel plots with his friends Claude Brasseur and Claude Rich to escape, but all three are recaptured. When the corporal plans another getaway, he finds that one of his chums isn't interested anymore. After a brief liaison with the daughter of a German dentist, Cassel once more tries to break out...and once more...and once more. Finally free from his captors, Cassel joins the resistance with his loyal pal Brasseur. The Elusive Corporal was a return to the themes of freedom and personal dignity inherent in Jean Renoir's earlier La Grande Illusion (1938); alas, Renoir had very little control over the final cut of the later film, and tended to dismiss the whole project as a mere "entertainment" in his declining years, though he remained proud of his closing panorama shot of Paris, which wordlessly expressed the euphoria of freedom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eddie Constantine stars in this routine crime meller as Jackson, a ventriloquist working in a Paris nightclub who runs into serious trouble. He is falsely accused of a murder, sent to prison, and then escapes to search for the real killer. It turns out the nightclub is a place for dealing drugs, which leads him toward the real perpetrators of the crime. Meanwhile, he finds out that a little girl has been used as a blackmail tool by the guilty gangsters to get her mother to accuse Jackson of the murder. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The title of this French bedroom farce translates to A Fly in the Ointment. That "fly" is music-hall performer Lucette (Suzy Delair), the current girlfriend of rakish roue Bois D'Enghien (Noel-Noel). Preparing to marry into a wealthy and honorable family, Boris is bedeviled by Lucette, who refuses to break up their relationship. Her tune changes abruptly when a handsome millionaire enters the picture. Adapted from the stage play by George Feydeau, Un Fil a La Patte is all slamming doors, bedroom tete-a-tetes, and lines like "But mon cherie, I can explain everything!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Une Histoire D'Amour served as the last starring film of Louis Jouvet, who died in 1951 at the age of 63. Jouvet is cast as Planche, a philosophical police inspector, investigating the suicides of two young lovers. Though he really doesn't have to, Planche delves into the past to find out what would motivate these two attractive people to destroy themselves. As he does so, their foredoomed love story is slowly revealed in a series of flashbacks. Dany Robin and Daniel Gelin are well cast as the star-crossed lovers, who play their scenes sincerely, with a minimum of movie-star histrionics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide