Jacqueline Delubac Movies

Filmed in France during the Occupation years, My First Love attained an American release in 1951. This spiritual precursor to the "New Wave" efforts of Francois Truffaut et al stars Gerard Nery as 17-year-old Bob Darcourt. The boy receives a crash course in the Facts of Life when he walks in on a tete-a-tete between his widowed mother (Jacqueline Delubac) and her lover (Aime Clariond). At first outraged, Bob eventually wholeheartedly accepts his mother's plan to remarry. That's about all that happens, save for a few comic interludes provided by Bob's lighthearted Uncle Victor (Louvigny). My First Love was adapted from a play by Paul Vandenberghe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though he died in 1943 at the hands of his Gestapo persecutors, the great French stage and screen actor Harry Baur was represented onscreen in 1947 by the first American release of his 1940 vehicle Volpone. Adapted from the Ben Jonson play of the same name, the story concerns a cynical, unscrupulous merchant named Volpone (Baur)-aka "the fox" -- who intends to get even with his enemies by pretending to be dead and watching them fight amongst themselves for his estate. He appoints his servant Mosca (Louis Jouvet), outwardly as dishonest as Volpone, as the executor of his will, then sits back to enjoy the fireworks. Volpone's plan inevitably backfires, setting the stage for an ironic denoument. Director Maurice Tourneur completed Volpone in 1939, but political upheavals in wartime France delayed its original release by a full year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The English-language title of this French diversion is The Man Who Seeks the Truth. Raimu stars as the modern-day Diogenes, a wealthy banker who feigns deafness to test the love and loyalty of his friends and relatives. Not surprisingly, Raimu is sorely disappointed by what he finds out, especially when his mistress Jacqueline Delubac, the only person he thoroughly believes in, turns out to be just as two-faced as everybody else. The first French film to be completed since the outbreak of WWII, L'Homme Qui Cherche la Verite deals with the current international crisis by studiously ignoring it. The film was directed by Hungarian native Alexandre Esway, who shortly thereafter temporarily abandoned movies to serve in the French Foreign Legion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Les Perles de Couronne, this Sacha Guitry historical extravaganza stars both Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac. The plotline hinges on four valuable pearls, which pass from hand to hand over a period of several centuries, from the time of Britain's Henry VIII to the present. All of this is offered in flashback form, as a group of modern-day treasure hunters try to locate three of the missing pearls by tracing them back to their previous owners. Guitry shows up as King Francis I, Barras and Napoleon III, in addition to his contemporary persona of Jean Martin; Debulac is seen as Mary Queen of Scots and Empress Josephine. There isn't a scintilla of historical accuracy in the film, nor did Guitry have the slightest intention of including any; his sole purpose was to entertain the audience and serve up a superbly ironic denoument. The supporting cast is a polyglot of French, English and Italian actors, each speaking in his or her own language. The screenplay for Pearls of the Crown was cowritten by Guitry and another immensely talented filmmaker, Christian-Jaque. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Story of a Cheat (Le Roman d'un Tricheur) is widely regarded as one of French writer/director Sacha Guitry's best and most personal films. Guitry himself stars as a charismatic cardsharp who survives solely through the auspices of Lady Luck. The story is told almost completely in pantomime; the only voice heard is the narrator's (Guitry, but of course). Among the film's many highlights is the opening sequence, in which the young Guitry misbehaves and is banned from a family picnic--where his parents and siblings all die from eating toadstools. This segues into a side-splitting "black" gag in which an exhausted priest huffs and puffs as he tries to keep pace with the long line of coffins! It has sometimes been suggested that Sacha Guitry was telling his own life story in Story of a Cheat, equating the ins and outs of the film industry with the chicanery of the cardsharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Renaissance man" filmmaker Sacha Guitry had only two films under his belt when he directed the capricious Bonne Chance (Good Luck). Guitry stars as Claude, an artist who splits a national lottery ticket with the gorgeous Marie (Jacqueline Delubac). Miracle of miracles, the couple wins a million francs, which they decide to lavish on a vacation. Since Marie is engaged to be married, Claude suggests that they pose as brother and sister for propriety's sake. Meanwhile, the girl's fiancé undergoes all sorts of hardships in the army, so he's hardly in a receptive mood when he discovers that Marie and Claude have been enjoying themselves -- and that they've fallen in love with each other. Setting a precedent for all Guitry films to follow, Bonne Chance was heavily censored in the U.S., robbing the film of much of its charm and satiric bite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide