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
- 1947
Road Block is the symbolic English-language title of this French crime drama. Claude Dauphin plays a respected architect who inadvertently becomes a murderer. Covering his tracks, Dauphin is able for a while to elude the law, but he can't escape the "inner voices" of his conscience. Still, he insists upon hiding his crime from the one person who would truly understand, his sweetheart Helene Perdiere. Ironically, when she finds out the truth, she walks out on Dauphin because he didn't trust her. Relentlessly defeatist, Route Sans Issue understandably had trouble finding an American distributor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hélène Perdrière, Gisele Casadesus, (more)
- 1946
Tombe du Ciel (Dropped from Heaven) is a showcase for the expansive talents of that genial ham Claude Dauphin. The star plays one of five musicians -- four men and a girl -- stranded in a rural community. While at dinner, the male musicians get royally drunk, waking with monumental hangovers and no memories of the past night's events. But Dauphin seems to recall that he dallied in the hayloft with the female member of the band -- and nine months later, it looks as if he was right! A bit too mature for the character he portrays, Claude Dauphin nonetheless scores on sheer personality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Gauthier, Gisèle Pascal, (more)
- 1944
English without Tears is a gentle satire of the temporary relaxation of class barriers in wartime England. Michael Wilding portrays the faithful family butler to a fabulously wealthy household. Each member of the family greets the news of upcoming world conflict with a different reaction, the most altruistic of which is that of the daughter (Penelope Dudley Ward), who joins the home service. When the butler rises to the army rank of lieutenant, the daughter sees him in a whole new light and falls in love with her onetime employee. There's little in this frivolous film that hasn't been done elsewhere, except perhaps for the opening-scene romantic complications in Geneva, which set the stage for the film's finale. English without Tears was released in the US in 1948 as Her Man Gilbey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Wilding, Sr., Lilli Palmer, (more)
- 1940
Paris-New York is set aboard the French luxury liner Normandie, and it goes without saying that the story takes place before that great ship went down in New York Harbor. Most of the passengers in this seafaring "Grand Hotel" are en route to the Big Apple to attend the 1939 World's Fair, which shows up in brief newsreel vignettes. The main storyline involves the forbidden romance between wealthy Giselle Preville and impoverished journalist Claude Dauphin. When Preville disappears, Dauphin is accused of kidnapping by the girl's snobbish father Rene Alexander. By the time the Normandie reaches New York, however, the "mystery" is solved and all misunderstandings blithely swept away. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, (more)
- 1940
Virtually plotless, Surprises Radio is little more than a nonstop parade of specialty numbers, performed by some of France's top radio stars. The film was clearly designed to allow the rural radio fans a rare opportunity to see their favorites "in the flesh." In this respect, the film is a valuable record of a form of entertainment that has long since passed from the scene. Otherwise, Surprises Radio is no better nor worse than such Hollywood airwave extravaganzas as Radio City Revels and Radio Stars on Parade. And with a running time of 80 minutes, it is surprising that the film's stars weren't given even more opportunity to strut their stuff; as it stands, they all seem to be cut short just as they're warming up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andre Bernard, Mady Berry, (more)
- 1939
Based on a novel by Gina Kaus, The Affair Lafont is the tragic tale of two sisters. Claire (Corinne Luchaire) is 20 years old, unmarried and incredibly naïve; Catherine (Annie Ducaux), nearing thirty, is terrified that her husband will leave her because she's never borne him a child. When Claire is rendered pregnant by her casual beau, Catherine adopts the baby, intending to pass it off as her own when her archeologist husband returns from a long expedition. Unfortunately, the father of the child sees this set-up as an ideal opportunity for blackmail; once this problem has been dealt with, Claire begins having second thoughts and demands her baby back. Told in flashback, this series of events is offered as explanation for the burst of gunfire that opens the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinne Luchaire, Annie Ducaux, (more)
- 1939
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
- Starring:
- Danielle Darrieux, Junie Astor, (more)
- 1939
In this sci-fi film, a scientist invents a prescient machine that can tell people when they will die. Oddly enough, the people do not want to know and therefore begin to riot, thereby causing the death of the inventor--something that the machine had predicted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Sologne, Mady Berry, (more)
