Fifi D'Orsay Movies

Though she promised Darrin that she'd give up her responsibilities as Queen of the Witches, Samantha is obliged to attend an important witches' convention. To fool Darrin, Sam prevails upon her lookalike cousin, Serena, to take her place in the Stephens household -- just when Darrin is planning a second honeymoon at Moonthatch Inn. This episode not only offers a rare instance in which Darrin teaches Sam a lesson, but also represents one of the final TV appearances of French-accented comedienne Fifi D'Orsay, in the role of concierge Madame Wageir. Originally telecast on October 24, 1968, "It's So Nice to Have a Spouse Around the House" was written by Barbara Avedon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two bohemians come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that goes awray in this comedy scripted by Carl Reiner. Paul (Dick Van Dyke and Casey (James Garner) are two American expatriates living in Paris; Paul is an artist and Casey a writer. Both have been trying to make a career, but with little success; Paul's girlfriend Nikki (Angie Dickinson), who is still in America, believes in his work and pays his rent. But Paul has reached the end of his tether and wants to go back home; Casey is horrified at the prospect of losing a rent-free home, so he comes up with an idea to help Paul's career and make some money. Since works by dead artists tend to fetch higher price tags and command more interest than work by living painters, Paul will fake his death with Casey's help and they'll both clean up. The plan works at first, until Casey finds he's been accused of murdering Paul. Ethel Merman has a supporting role as a madam with a habit of bursting into song. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comedy, a Yankee musician is working in Paris when he encounters a movie star chasing after her naughty French poodle Monsieur Cognac. The name is most apropos for the little doggy is quite the lush when it comes to booze. This suits the hard-drinking musician just fine and the two go out on a bender. Later the star and her father find the toasted twosome. The star begins falling in love with the musician. Despite her father's objections, the two get married. Unfortunately, Mr. Cognac accompanies them on the honeymoon. He becomes quite jealous of the woman's new husband and ruins their wedding night. Because she refuses to relinquish the dog, their new marriage is nearly destroyed. They separate until the husband manages to bring home Pink Poupee, a charming female poodle. Suddenly Mr. C forgets all about his jealousy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In dire need of 100 dollars, Lucy (Lucille Ball) is delighted to discover that her pinchpenny banker Mr. Mooney has been temporarily replaced by her former boyfriend Vincent Meyers (Max Showalter). Supremely confident that she will be able to flatter the money from Meyers, Lucy is stopped short when she is unable to remember the "pet name" she had bestowed on her old flame way back when. To cover her tracks, Lucy pretends to have temporary amnesia...and of course, must spend the rest of the episode pretending to try to get her memory back. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When the Americans capture the village of Beauville, Saunders (Vince Morrow) grants permission to Pvt. Paul Villers (Chris Robinson) to search for his father, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. Catching up with the elder Villers (Will Kuluva), Paul finds that his dad is the town's physician. He also discovers to his chagrin that the "good " doctor is harboring a dark secret. Canadian comic actress Fifi D'Orsay plays it straight as the wife of the local Resistance leader. (Note: in the closing credits, Paul and Emile Villers are incorrectly billed as "Villette"). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having struck gold with the previous season's Dillinger, the King Brothers returned to Monogram as producers of The Gangster. Adapted by Daniel Fuchs from his own novel Low Company, the film stars Barry Sullivan as flint-faced racketeer Shubunka. Shown to be a product of the slums, Shubunka spends his adulthood in pursuit of power and riches, with no time for friendship or romance. Wounded in a gangland shootout, Shubunka ruminates on his past, present and (unlikely) future, wondering if it's all been worth it. Promoted as a "psychological" drama, The Gangster has plenty of gunplay and bloodshed to satiate action fans, and a surfeit of sex appeal in the form of gangster's moll Nancy (played by Monogram's resident skating star Belita). Prominent in the supporting cast is the ineluctable Sheldon Leonard as Shubunka's chief rival, delivering a subtler variation on his patented tough-guy screen persona. The Gangster was directed by Oscar-winning art director Gordon Wiles, later a mainstay of such TV series as Land of the Lost and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The title tells all in the PRC quickie Delinquent Daughters. June Carlson and Teala Loring play a couple of mature-looking teenagers named June and Sally, whose parents never have any time for them. As a result, June and Sally fall in with a bad crowd and get mixed up in illicit drinking, wild parties and petty crimes. Vivacious French-Canadian comedienne Fifi D'Orsay is cast against type as a hard-boiled roadhouse hostess, while Joe Devlin, who spent most of the 1940s playing Mussolini lookalikes, represents The Law. As was the case in most films of this ilk, Delinquent Daughters ends up in a courtroom, with a stern-voiced judge (Frank McGlynn) admonishing both the girls and their neglectful parents. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this wartime drama, an ex-gangster proves himself a decent man when he helps defeat the Nazis while he is hiding out on a tiny island. At first the gangster looks as if he has joined the German soldiers by providing them with a location for refueling their U-boats. Later an American ship is sunk off shore. Among the survivors is a merchant marine who was formerly a New York City cop. The cop instantly recognizes the fugitive mobster and the situation soon becomes tense. In the end the Nazis realize that he has been working for the Allies all along and he is executed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret) introduces a steady stream of top variety acts. The star attraction of the Wonder Bar floor show is the Latin dance team of Inez (Dolores Del Rio) and Harry (Ricardo Cortez). Al worships Inez from afar, but she is hopelessly in love with Harry, a no-good louse who is carrying on with Liane (Kay Francis), the wife of prominent banker Renaud (Henry Kolker). Meanwhile, German military officer Captain Von Ferring (Robert H. Barrat), who has lost his fortune to bad investments, enjoys one last fling at the Wonder Bar before committing suicide. The two main subplots converge when Inez stabs Harry out of pique, whereupon the ever-loyal Al deposits Harry's body in Von Ferring's car, knowing full well that Von Ferring intends to drive himself off a steep hill to his death. Never letting Inez find out that she killed Harry, Al stands stoically aside as she finds true happiness with composer Tommy (Dick Powell). Lest this all sound heavily somberly serious, it should be noted that Wonder Bar is chock full of laughs, from both Jolson (who runs through quite a repertoire of tried-and-true routines) and the drunken antics of "tired business men" Hugh Herbert and Hobart Cavanaugh. The musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley range from sedate to incredible, with the bizarrely racist 10-minute "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (truly a jaw-dropping experience) falling into the latter category. The film's most outrageous moment, however, is an uninhibited chunk of homosexual humor on the dance floor ("Boys will be boys!", crows Jolson) which just barely squeaked past the Hollywood censors! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jimmy Dolan (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is a light heavyweight champion, with the world at his feet. Then he gets into a fight with a reporter at a party and, thanks to an accident of fate and a perfect frame by some "friends" of his, he ends up on the run from a homicide. He ends up hiding out in a small town on a health farm, run for the rehabilitation of young children suffering from infantile paralysis (aka polio) by Peggy (Loretta Young) and Mrs. Moore (Aline MacMahon). They initially have doubts about this stranger, who seems to be hiding something, but Dolan is gradually won over by the unselfishness of the two women -- especially Peggy -- and the love of the children, whose ranks include Freckles (Mickey Rooney), Mary (Anne Shirley), and Sam (Allen "Farina" Hoskins). Peggy and Mrs. Moore may lose the farm unless they can come up with a way of paying off the mortgage, and when a barnstorming fighter comes through town offering $100 a round for anyone who can stay in the ring with him, Jimmy starts thinking that maybe this is a chance to use his fists one last time for a good cause. But then Philaxer (Guy Kibbee), a disgraced police detective, shows up, looking to redeem himself by finding the killer in the case back in New York -- and he's got his eye on Dolan. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

That charming supporting player, Fifi D'Orsay, got a rare starring role in this obscure show business melodrama produced by I.E. Chadwick for release by Monogram. The perky actress played -- of all things -- a Canadian rodeo rider. Persuaded by an ambitious press agent (Paul Kelly), she enters the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City and -- to no one's great surprise -- wins. Promising to make the girl a star, Broadway producer Robert Warwick gets rid of Kelly in order to have her to himself. He assures the press agent that it is all on the up and up and that he intends to marry the pretty Canadienne. Kelly returns in time to save the girl from the clutches of one of Broadway's biggest and baddest wolves only to receive a severe beating for his efforts. Bravely, Fifi goes on with the night's show (gaily singing "Comment ça va" by Albert Hay Malotte), but rushes to Kelly's bedside as soon as possible. The vivacious D'Orsay appeared in scores of films, but only for a moment or two and often wearing a maid's uniform. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Flagg and Quirt, the eternally bickering "friendly enemies" introduced in Lawrence Stallings' WWI play What Price Glory, were at it again in 1931's Women of All Nations. Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe reprise their screen characterizations as pugnacious, girl-crazy marine sergeants Flagg and Quirt, who in the course of the film's 71 minutes hopscotch from Panama to Sweden to Nicaragua to Turkey. In Sweden, the boys battle over the affections of icy blonde Elsa (Greta Nissen), while in Turkey they find themselves in the middle of a sheik's harem (where else?) Comic relief El Brendel has the film's best scene, in which he obeys Flagg's order "Get me the lay of the land" by returning with coquettish Fifi D'Orsay! Humphrey Bogart was supposed to have played the romantic lead in Women of All Nations, but his role was all but eliminated in the final release print. The McLaglen-Lowe teaming was good for at least one more pre-Production Code vehicle, Hot Pepper (1933). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a macho ironworker and his equally tough friend decide to leave New Orleans to work as beam-walkers on a New York City skyscraper. This arouses the ire of his Cajun girlfriend who promptly shoots at him as he walks away and then follows him to the Big Apple where she becomes a nightclub performer. Time passes and her ex-lover becomes the head of the ironworker's union. He then finds himself dishonest crooks who are trying to manipulate him into embezzling treasury funds for them by having their most luscious moll seduce him. Fortunately, the ever-jealous Cajun girl and her pistol intervene, and the treasury money is saved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi