Marguerite Deval Movies
- 1954
Famed French farceur Noel-Noel is practically the whole show in Spice of Life (originally released in 1950 as Les Cassie Pieds). A prototype of such "comedy concert" films as Eddie Murphy Raw and Swimming Through Cambodia, this is essentially a filmed lecture, wherein Noel-Noel expounds about the various bores and blowhards in modern society. The comedian's targets include the Practical Joker, the Woman Driver, the Glad-Hander and the Stranger Who Seems to Know You. Brief comedy sketches featuring the likes of Bernard Blier and Jean Tissier help to illustrate Noel-Noel's theses. A winner of several French industry awards, Spice of Life didn't do quite as well in the U.S., since most of its appeal was verbal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noël-Noël, Bernard Blier, (more)
- 1949
Exotic French film star Viviane Romance was the box-office insurance for Marked Girls. Many observers, however, felt that the film truly belonged to third-billed Renee St. Cyr. Romance plays Regine, a gangster's moll, who befriends Juliette (St, Cyr), an orphaned girl recently released from prison. Both of these "marked girls" have crosses to bear: Regine is the combination lover-patsy of a no-good gangster, while Juliette is being pushed into a wealthy marriage by a scheming female underworld leader. A hint of lesbianism managed to make it past the American censors, though many shots of Viviane Romance's cleavage were consigned to the cutting room floor. Director Francis De Carco adapted the screenplay from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viviane Romance, Georges Flament, (more)
- 1946
Gringalet was based on a stage play by Paul Vanderberghe, who also essays the title role in the film version. Charles Vanel stars as a powerful industrialist who learns that he has a grown, illegitimate son named Gringalet (Vanderberghe). Once he's over the initial shock, the industrialist insists upon introducing Gringalet to his outraged family. They treat the boy with barely concealed hatred until he finally wins them over. Also repeating her role from the stage version of Gringalet is Marguerite Deval as the imperious family matriarch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Marguerite Deval, (more)
- 1945
Les J 3 was adapted from the stage success by Roger Fernard. The scene is a provincial French school, home of the dreaded "J3s," a roomful of incorrigible problem students. Winsome but dedicated schoolteacher Gisele Pascal intends to turn the J3s into model scholars. This indeed happens, but not before Pascal falls in love with one of her older students. Saturnin Fabre co-stars as the perplexed headmaster. Though made available to American distributors, Les J 3 made little headway theatrically in the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gisèle Pascal, Marguerite Deval, (more)
- 1943
Directed and adapted from his own 1936 play by Jean Anouilh, Le Voyageur Sans Bagages centers around a man who lost his memory over a decade earlier due to a war injury. Called Gaston (although no one knows his real name), he has spent the interval in a mental institution, where he has been quite happily tending to plants. An amiable, well-liked man, he seems content with no memory, but his doctor insists on discovering his identity. To this end, the doctor has located a family who, upon inspecting Gaston, feels quite certain that he is their Jacques, long since believed lost in the war. Rather than providing joy to Gaston, however, this possibility disturbs him, as it is revealed that the family itself is highly dysfunctional. Worse, Jacques seems to have been a horrid man, a person who thinks nothing of sleeping with his brother's wife and thoughtlessly killing animals. As the evidence piles up that he may indeed be the appalling Jacques, Gaston must decide what he will do with this information and how he will live his future life. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blanchette Brunoy, Marguerite Deval, (more)
- 1939
Jules Berry stars as a radio writer in search of a concept for a new program. Happening to drop into the home of Noel-Noel and his large brood, Berry determines that the dinner-table gossip of Noel-Noel's family would provide enough material for an entire years' worth of radio shows. Our hero sneaks a microphone into the household, and the result is the entirely ad-libbed weekly series The Duraton Family at Dinner. Trouble brews when Noel-Noel's friends and neighbors don't take kindly to having their dirty laundry aired in public. With a few emendations, La Famille Duraton was reworked in 1943 as the Hollywood comedy True to Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcelle Praince, Marguerite Deval, (more)
- 1938
Based on a story by Hugo Bettauer, La Rue Sans Joie is a remake of German director G.W. Pabst's silent classic The Joyless Street. Dita Parlo essays the old Greta Garbo role as Jean de Romer, daughter of an impoverished Viennese professor. To keep food on her family's table, Jean is willing to make any sacrifice, which leads inexorably to a life of prostitution. The subsequent courtroom finale, wherein Jean is on trial for the murder of slimy gigolo Louis Stinno (Valery Inkijoff), is the film's dramatic highlight. Matching Dita Parlo's stunning performance are Marguerite Deval as a cold-hearted madam and Albert Prejean as a callous capitalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dita Parlo, Marguerite Deval, (more)
- 1937
The English-language title of this French slice-of-life drama is Lady Killer, an apt description of anti-hero Lucien (Jean Gabin). A colonial cavalry officer, Lucien gives his love to whomever he fancies, then forgets about them as he moves from post to post. The one he can't forget is Madeline (Mireille Balin), and the feeling is mutual. Years later, Lucien is the wretched, embittered proprietor of a rundown Parisian café. Who should come back into his life but Madeline -- a reunion that ends tragically for them both, literalizing the film's title and leaving Lucien even more devastated than before. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, (more)
- 1936
Filmed in 1936 but not released in the US until 1940, Julien Duvivier's Man of the Hour (L'Homme du Jour) was, believe it or not, Maurice Chevalier's first French starring feature (all of his previous vehicles had been made in Hollywood or London). Chevalier plays a dual role: "Himself", the well known singer-boulevardier, and a humble stage electrician named Alfred Boulard. The hero of the occasion is Boulard, who attains fame and fortune after donating blood to save the life of stage actress Mona Talia (Elvira Popesco). His sudden celebrity goes directly to Boulard's head, and soon he is impossible to be around. In the end, Mona teams up with Boulard's boarding-house companions to teach him a lesson. Critics in 1936 were overwhelmed with the scene in which both Chevaliers sing together, though that sort of thing was already kid stuff in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elvire Popesco, Renee Devillers, (more)
- 1935
Playwright Jacques Deval directed this 1935 adaptation of his own stage comedy Tovaritch. Set in Paris, the story revolves around Princess Tatiana (Irene de Zilaby) and General Mikail (Andre Lefaur), two members of the Russian nobility who'd been forced to relocate to France after the Revolution. Though the regal couple has been entrusted with the Imperial crown jewels, they'd sooner starve to death than betray the late Czar by selling the gems. As a result, they're reduced to taking jobs as servants in the home of a wealthy but somewhat zany family. Robert E. Sherwood's Americanized version of Deval's Tovaritch was filmed by Warner Bros. in 1937, with Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- André Lefaur, Pierre Renoir, (more)
- 1932
Described alliteratively as a "pictural phantasy", La Folle Nuit (The Mad Night) is set sometime in the 18th century. The hero, played by Guy Parzy, is the brother of Suzanne Blanchetti, lady-in-waiting to gorgeous duchess Colette Brodo. Parzy falls in love with the duchess, but can't get anywhere near her thanks to the vigilance of the girl's duenna Marguerite Deval. In desperation, Parzy disguises himself in his sister's clothes and poses as a girl. This gains him entrance to the duchess' boudoir -- but now what does he do? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Deval, Suzanne Bianchetti, (more)
