Danielle Darrieux Movies

Heart Throbs is the rather prosaic English title of the French romantic comedy Battlements de Coeur. Danielle Darrieux plays an impoverished reform-school escapee who finds a new lease on life when she enrolls in a school for pickpockets run by Fagin-like Saturnin-Fabre. Before long, Darrieux is the school's prize pupil, though she intends to abandon her life of crime should the right man come along. But Saturnin-Fabre has other ideas, and grooms Darrieux for her entree into High Society, the better to divest foreign ambassador Andre Luguet of his valuables. Unfortunately for her mentor, Darrieux falls in love with Luguet, and the plot takes off from there. Battlements de Coeur was remade in Hollywood as Heartbeat (1946), with Ginger Rogers as the elegant cutpurse and Basil Rathbone as her suave instructor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Retour a L'Aube (Return to the Dawn) exists primarily as a showcase for the delectable Danielle Darrieux. Fascinated by train travel, Darrieux impulsively marries railroad stationmaster Pierre Dux. Upon receiving an inheritance from a relative in Budapest, our heroine seizes the opportunity to make a long and portentously glamorous rail trip to the Hungarian capitol. In the course of her subsequent adventures, she falls in love with a handsome jewel thief (Jacques Dumesil) and a likable playboy (Pierre Mitaud), but by film's end, the chastened Darrieux returns to the arms of her understanding husband. The film was based on a story by Vicki Baum, of Grand Hotel fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

French director Henri Decoin was married to actress Danielle Darrieux for nearly seven years during which time he cast her in several uninspiring vehicles such as this one. Darrieux plays Lydia, a struggling law student who poses as the estranged daughter of famous historian Jacques Ferney (Charles Vanel). She abuses Ferney's confidence in order to make him adopt her, thus ending her financial problems. Later, the fledgling lawyer finds herself in court, defending a woman in similar circumstances. Vanel and Darrieux are quite good in their early scenes, but the last part of the film seems wooden and contrived. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Mademoiselle Ma Mere was adapted for the screen from the stage farce by Louis Verneuil. The title translates as My Mother is a Miss, and thereby hangs the tale. Spoiled rich girl Jacqueline (Danielle Darrieux) vows to marry the seventh man who proposes to her, no matter who he may be. The lucky seventh is Albert Letournel (Alerme), who is old enough to be Jacqueline's father. True to her word, she marries Albert, but only after securing his promise that it will be a sexless union. The fun begins when Jacqueline falls in love with Albert's grown son Georges (Pierre Brasseur), who balks at the notion of romancing his own stepmother. As Jacqueline's rich daddy, Michel Simon watches the screwy goings-on with silent confusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Idol's End, a novel by Claude Anet, the French Mayerling is based on the tragic real-life story of Hapsburg Crown Prince Rudolph and his mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera. Since the details of Rudolph and Marie's lives and deaths are clouded in controversy, much of the film is romanticized speculation-with emphasis on the romance. The film establishes Rudolph (Charles Boyer) as a rebellious "man of the people", at eternal odds with his despotic father, Emperor Franz Joseph (Jean Dax). To keep him quiet and out of trouble, Rudolph is forced into an arranged marriage, and surrounded by Hapsburg informers and spies. In an effort to escape this oppressive atmosphere, a disguised Rudolph dashes off to a fair, where he meets the beauteous 17-year-old Marie (Danielle Darieux). Thus begins an illicit romance, which the lovers try vainly to keep secret from the prying eyes of the Emperor's flunkeys. One of Rudolph's enemies arranges for Marie to be taken away to Trieste for a "rest cure." Rudolph sinks into a drunken depression, snapping out of it only when Marie returns. They attempt to legitimize their love through marriage, but the Catholic hierarchy will not approve of Rudolph's divorcing his wife. Desperately, the lovers flee to Rudolph's hunting lodge in Mayerling. Here they spend an exquisite last night together, then formulate a death pact. The following day, Marie and Rudolph are found lying side by side-united in death. Transforming this grim story into a tender, moving romance was quite an undertaking, but the end result was worth it: Mayerling was a huge international hit, and the winner of several industry awards, including the New York film critics' "best foreign picture" prize. Mayerling was remade in surprisingly cold and distant fashion in 1968, with Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though the Czechoslovakian film industry had been "nationalized" by the Nazis after the 1938 invasion, a few pre-war productions managed to sneak into the U.S. without German interference. One of these was Port Arthur, originally released in 1936. Set in the Russian city of Port Arthur, the story takes place in 1904, at the height of the Russo-Japanese war. Heroine Youki (Danielle Darrieux) is half-Russian and half-Japanese, putting her in quite a bind in terms of loyalty. Also affected by Youki's contrary fidelities is her Russian-officer husband Boris (Anton Walbrook) and her enemy-spy brother Ivamoura (Jean-Max). In the end, Youki betrays the Russians on behalf of the Japanese, but it turns out that her motives were pure; Ivamoura had threatened to kill Boris unless Youki agreed to stab her homeland in the back. Port Arthur was released in America in two different versions; one of these, dubbed into English, made the rounds in 1939 as I Give My Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The legendary Billy Wilder made his debut as a director with this comedy, shot in France (in collaboration with Alexander Esway) shortly before Wilder emigrated to the United States. Henry (Pierre Mingland) is a carefree young man who has fallen out of favor with his wealthy father, a doctor. Short on money and looking for excitement, Henry becomes involved with a gang of car thieves, and gets to know Jeanette (Danielle Darrieux), sister of the gang's leader who often acts as a decoy to distract young men with new cars as the thieves do their work. Henry soon falls in love with Jeanette, but discovers a life of crime is a bit more dangerous than he was counting on. Mauvaise Graine would prove to be Wilder's last European film; he wouldn't direct again for another nine years, when he made The Major and the Minor after establishing himself as a top screenwriter. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide