Claude Dauphin Movies
Born into a family of French music hall entertainers, Claude Dauphin made his own entree into the theatrical world as a set designer. The prematurely greying Dauphin turned to acting in the late 1920s, making his first film in 1930. Dauphin nearly always managed to elevate his material with his shameless scene-stealing and Boulevardier charm. Broadway audiences were regaled by Dauphin in the original stage version of The Happy Time. In 1955, Dauphin co-starred with Jean Pierre Aumont in the European-filmed TV series Paris Precinct; his later television work included several sparkling guest appearance on the late-night Merv Griffin Show. The brother of actor Jean Nohain, Dauphin was married three times, to actresses Rosine Dearean, Maria Mauban, and Norma Eberhardt. Claude Dauphin's last film was the Norman Rosemont made-for-TV production Les Miserables (1978). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Lady L (Sophia Loren) is an 80-year-old woman who recalls her amorous adventures in flashback in this light sex comedy. While working as a laundress, Lady L falls for the gambler and anarchist Armand (Paul Newman), who gets mixed up with an inept group trying to assassinate the senile Prince Otto (Peter Ustinov). She ends up marrying the suave aristocrat Dicky (David Niven) in this entertaining but uneven feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, (more)
- 1965
The first film directed by Costa-Gavras, The Sleeping Car Murders was based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot. During a Marseilles-to-Paris overnight train trip, a girl is found dead in a sleeping car. As Paris detective Yves Montand steps up his investigation, more and more passengers turn up murdered. The unlikely climax is the only sore point of this otherwise well-wrought mystery. Bereft of the politicizing of Costa-Gavras' later works, The Sleeping Car Murders exhibits the director's fondness for American "film noir" thrillers. The film first hit Parisian movie screens under the title Compartiment Tueurs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1964
Friedrich Durrenmatt's misanthropic theatrical piece The Visit has never been totally successful in any production, not even in the original Broadway presentation starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The film version keeps this failure record consistent. Ingrid Bergman plays a fabulously wealthy woman who returns to her impoverished home town. Years earlier, she had been driven from town in disgrace after sleeping with solid citizen Anthony Quinn. She now offers a deal to the city elders: Bergman will alleviate the city's financial difficulties--in exchange for Quinn's life. The original play ended with the lynching of the seducer; the film ends with Bergman halting the execution, proclaiming that by allowing Quinn to live, the townsfolk will be forced to feel the pangs of guilt over what they might have done for the rest of their lives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Quinn, (more)
- 1964
In this romantic drama, a middle-aged gambler tells a casino croupier her life story. The story is told in flashback and chronicles the woman's romantic exploits with men. Though she was involved with many men, only one really touched her heart. He was a bartender who was tragically shot and killed during an attempted robbery. She later marries and has a daughter. Unfortunately she alienates herself from her daughter when she has an affair with her daughter's fiance. Her remorse is short lived. The film jumps back to the present with the woman leaving the casino on the arm of a handsome millionaire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bell, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1963
Trouble begins when five Frenchmen pool their money in an attempt to pull off a huge drug deal. One intercepts the money and kills his friend to cover his tracks. The others are haunted by doubt and innuendo to the point where they all point fingers and guns at each other. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Auclair, Claude Dauphin, (more)
- 1962
Filmmaker Julien Duvivier returns to the multistoried format of his earlier omnibus films Tales of Manhattan and Flesh and Fantasy with the 1962 French production The Devil and the Ten Commandments. Actually, there are only seven separate episodes in the film, covering such commandments as "Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me", "Thou Shalt Not Steal" and "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother." Each of the vignettes seems to owe more to O. Henry or DeMaupassant than the Book of Exodus, with twist endings carrying the day. The all-star cast includes Michel Simon (Episode One), Dany Saval (Episode Two), Charles Aznavour and Lino Ventura (Episode Three), Micheline Presle, Mel Ferrer and Claude Dauphin (Episode Four); Fernandel (Episode Five); Alain Delon and Danielle Darrieux (Episode Six) and Jean-Claude Brialy (Episode Seven). Best of the batch is the fifth episode, wherein horse-faced Fernandel declares that he is God. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Simon, Françoise Arnoul, (more)
- 1962
In his first effort at directing a feature-length film, William (Ted) Kotcheff, best-known for movies like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, does an excellent job in making this drama effective. He is helped in no small part by James Mason as Brett Aimsley, a sophisticated, at-ease former junior partner in a brokerage firm, and John Mills as Lt. Col. Clifford Southey, a former clerk in that same company. During the war, the lieutenant carries his sense of inferiority from his peacetime job as a clerk with him. So when he has a chance to nail Brett (a junior officer now) for trying to bring some censored goods back into London, he takes the chance and Brett is drummed out of service. Brett heads for Tahiti and a pretty good life in the sun, until Clifford shows up on the island with big plans to build a hotel -- bringing with him the same defensive attitude. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, John Mills, (more)
- 1961
In this heavy drama, a race car driver suffers a head injury on his wedding day and becomes a mental case. The couple puts off their honeymoon while he is treated by a psychiatrist. Later when they make love, he tries to strangle her. This behavior becomes a habit, for every time they are romantic he becomes insanely angry with her. He thinks he has really gone 'round the bend until he sees his new bride and the shrink together. He goes to the doctor and confronts him. In turn, the shrink tries to make the man believe that he is hallucinating. A chase ensues between the men. The frightened doctor tries to flee in a cable car and ends up having a fatal fall. The married couple then continues their honeymoon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Dauphin, Diane Cilento, (more)
- 1958
Mon Coquin de Pere translates approximately as My Darned Father. The father in question, played by Claude Dauphin, falls in love with pretty young mademoiselle Gaby Morlay. Trouble is, Dauphin's son Philipe Lamaire has also set his cap for the beauteous Morlay. The film's most enjoyable scene is an extended flashback sequence, consisting of footage from the 1938 French romantic comedy We are No Longer Children -- which also featured Claude Dauphin. While the 1938 film was directed by Auguste Genina, Mon Coquin de Pere was helmed by Georges Lacombe, whose next-to-last film this was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Morlay, Antonella Lualdi, (more)
- 1958
Swinging like a pendulum between comedy and drama, this tale by director Henri Decoin concerns a lady lawyer with a tendency to hit the bottle. She takes on a difficult case considering her own weakness -- she is to defend a young man who has killed his alcoholic father. Challenged to the limit, in the end it is love that sees her through the hurdles. Well-acted and sophisticated, the story still does not run much below the surface of each protagonist. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henri Vidal, Michèle Morgan, (more)
The Quiet American was the first major American-financed film to touch upon the powder-keg situation in Vietnam (still referred to as Indochina in 1958). Audie Murphy plays an enigmatic American who comes to Saigon, ostensibly on an economic mission. He meets an embittered journalist (Michael Redgrave) who is living with an Indochinese girl (Giorgia Moll). The American falls for the girl and promises to marry her. In retaliation, the reporter tells the communists that the American GI's economist stance is a cover, and that he is actually selling munitions to non-communist troops. Graham Greene had intended his novel The Quiet American to be an attack against American influence in Southeast Asia. Producer/director/adapter Joseph L. Mankiewicz would have none of that, so he changed the ending into a pro-Yankee tract -- thereby killing any impact the film might have had. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1955
Anouk Aimee stars as a young woman of humble means who maneuvers her way into the uppermost rungs of French society. How she does it, and the price she has to pay along the way, is unfolded through a series of flashbacks. Since Anouk is recalling her life while in the offices of an abortionist, one suspects that things haven't gone quite as well as she'd hoped. Roland Laudenbach's screenplay was adapted from a novel by Cecil St. Laurent. During its very brief American release, Les Mauvaises Rencontres was known as The Bad Liaisons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Pascal, Anouk Aimée, (more)
- 1954
Warner Bros.' followup to its 3D hit House of Wax, Phantom of the Rue Morgue bears only the slightest resemblance to its alleged inspiration, the Edgar Allan Poe mystery yarn Murders in the Rue Morgue. Karl Malden delivers one of the hammiest performances on record as mad scientist Dr. Marais, who uses a trained gorilla to exact revenge on those who've wronged him. At the top of Marais' hit list are the many beautiful women who've spurned his advances, including such French pastries as Yvonne (Allyn McLerie), Arlette (Veola Vonn) and Camille (Dolores Dorn). Each of these unfortunate ladies have been given bracelets decorated with bells, designed to attract the homicidal ape's attention. Psychology professor Paul Dupin (Steve Forrest) conducts a private investigation of the killings, only to be arrested for the murders himself by the supremely confident (and rather dense) Inspector Bonnard (Claude Dauphin). This leaves Dupin's sweetheart Jeanette (Patricia Medina) virtually defenseless when she is targetted for extermination by Doc Marais. Outside of such incidental pleasures as seeing Merv Griffin play a French medical student, Phantom of the Rue Morgue offers a vast array of unsubtle 3D "shock" effects, which come off as hilarious when the film is shown "flat" (as it always is these days). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, (more)
- 1953
Innocents in Paris is a series of anecdotes bundled together by geography. First we see the efforts by British diplomat Alastair Sim to loosen up Soviet-agent Peter Illing long enough to forge an economic plan between Russia and England. Then we watch as dotty artist Margaret Rutherford purchases a copy of the Mona Lisa. Next we see British officer Jimmy Edwards go off on a toot in a Parisian bistro. The next vignette involves impressionable Claire Bloom, who is swept off her feet by a local rake (the human variety, not the garden implement). And so it goes for 102 minutes in the British version of Innocents in Paris, and 93 minutes in the American print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alastair Sim, Ronald Shiner, (more)
- 1953
Bing Crosby heads this heart-tugging post war drama of a grieving widower who is duped into forming an unbreakable bond with the French orphan he believes is his long-lost son. Crosby lost his beloved when the Nazis killed her for participating in the French resistance. Much later, Crosby is told that his son, who bears striking resemblance to his wife, is in a Paris orphanage. Despite the head nun's insistence that 8-year-old Fourcade is his boy, Crosby is skeptical and so tries to test the lad. When the boy fails the test, Crosby confronts the duplicitous sister who 'fesses up to her scheme and determination to see that her charges get good homes and happy lives. Though Crosby has come to love little Fourcade, he cannot get over his grief until he receives wise counsel from a very good friend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Claude Dauphin, (more)
- 1953
Dany Robin is Naughty Martine in this ooh-la-la French romantic comedy. Set at a fancy girl's boarding school in the French Alps, the film casts Robin as a natural-born fibber, whose tendency to weave tall tales causes ever so much trouble for her parents, her teachers and her classmates. Leaving the confines of the school to become a "woman of the world," the wide-eyed Martine links up with The Baron (Lucien Baroux), a slick con artist. Romance enters Martine's life thanks to the timely arrival of an avalanche -- followed by the appearance of handsome mountain guide Pierre (Henri Vidal). But when Pierre turns out to be a jerk, Martine finds true love in the arms of worldly composer Brevannes (Claude Dauphin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dany Robin, Claude Dauphin, (more)
The Paris demimonde of 1900 is the setting for Casque d'Or. Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), an honest woodworker, falls in love with Marie (Simone Signoret), the "moll" of minor crook Roland (William Sabatier). Gangster boss Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin) orders Georges and Roland to fight a duel to the death over the girl, as prescribed by the "code of the apache." Felix then pins the blame for Roland's death on Georges' boyhood chum, Raymond (Raymond Bussières), knowing that the woodworker will nobly accept the blame; this will leave Marie alone, which is what the lustful Felix has wanted all along. When Georges learns he's been set up as a dupe, he escapes from the police and kills Felix. Casque D'Or was based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal, wherein an otherwise decent man was guillotined for shooting down a gangster boss in broad daylight. Since the scandal was common knowledge in France, the downbeat ending of this film was hardly unexpected but still extremely moving. Completed in 1951, Casque D'Or was a failure on its first release but then built up an excellent word-of-mouth reputation abroad. The film was released in the U.S. in 1956 as Golden Marie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, (more)
- 1952
Thanks to a bureaucratic blunder, the US State Department invites brassy showgirl Doris Day to attend a chi-chi arts festival in Paris. En route to the City of Light, Day falls in love with diplomat corps flunkey Ray Bolger (who's responsible for the error), even though he's married to witchy Eve Miller. The marriage turns out to be invalid, clearing the path for a happy ending. None of the songs in April in Paris are worth remembering, though the dancing by Bolger and Day is well up to the standards of both performers. The romantic scenes, however, fail to hold up: after all, we're talking The Scarecrow and the World's Oldest Virgin here! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Ray Bolger, (more)
- 1952
The works of Guy de Maupassant have likely been adapted by more French filmmakers than those of any other author (with the possible exception of Georges Simenon). Max Ophuls harnesses three Maupassant short stories to suit his artistic purposes in Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure). In "The Mask," an aging lothario (Jean Galland) learns more about himself than he cares to when he dons a mask to cover his wrinkles. In "The House of Madame Tellier," the proprietress of a brothel (Madeline Renaud) closes up shop one day for an unusual (for her) personal mission. And in "The Model," both the title character (Simone Simon) and her artist-lover (Daniel Gelin) pay the price for her romantic impulsiveness. Each of the playlets in Le Plaisir explore conflicting sides of human nature -- a theme common to both the works of Maupassant and the films of Ophuls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Dauphin, Jean Galland, (more)
- 1950
The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this romanticized and slightly crackbrained crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays the Luciano counterpart, who once he arrives in Italy renews his criminal activities. Chandler masterminds a black-market racket, capitalizing upon wartime shortages in Europe. He falls in love with a Contessa (Marta Toren), who is the benign patroness of the small village where he lives. Under her influence, Chandler abandons his life of crime, turns his back on the ill-gotten gains that he's already smuggled into Italy, and becomes a pillar of the community. And if you believe that, We have some land in Florida we'd like to show you. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Märta Torén, Jeff Chandler, (more)
- 1948
If a French film of the 1940s or 1950s had Claude Dauphin in the cast, the producers were assured of a decent box-office turnover. In Ainsi Finit la Nuit, Dauphin is teamed with another audience favorite, Anne Vernon. The stars play a pair of clandestine lovers, while Henri Guisol is cast as Vernon's insensitive husband. The film is strongest in its first half, where characterization rather than situation dominates. The final portion of the film suffers from the scriptwriter's attempts to wrap things up as quickly as possible. Ainsi Finit la Nuit was also released as L'Affair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Vernon, Katherine Kath, (more)
