André Nicolle Movies
- 1947
Originally La Cage aux Rossignois, A Case of Nightingales could just as well have been titled "The Noel-Noel Show," inasmuch as the famed French actor is both star and co-screenwriter. Having completed a book about his experiences as a reform-school teacher, Clement Mathieu (Noel-Noel) is unable to interest a publisher in the project. To make ends meet, he takes a promotional job with toy-airplane manufacturer Raymond (Georges Biscot), who as a gesture of friendship serializes Mathieu's memoirs in the Paris Telegram. Astonished by the story, Mathieu's girlfriend Martine (Michel Francey) wants to know more -- whereupon Mathieu recalls how he was able to organize a group of the most incorrigible reform-school inmates into an angelic-voiced boys' choir (hence the film's title). His tale told, Mathieu is himself astonished to discover that Martine is the cousin of one of his former pupils! An overly melodramatic finale mars this otherwise sensitive comedy-drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Micheline Francey, Marcelle Praince, (more)
- 1939
In this dark drama, the mysterious disappearance of several Parisian women cause the police to hire the roommate of the latest victim to go undercover, looking into strange newspaper ads seeking young single women, and meet all that placed the ads. She does so, but all of them are innocent. Then she meets a cabaret singer looking for a maid. He is so charming, that she soon falls in love and they plan to marry. Unfortunately, on the eve of their wedding, the man is arrested for the murders. He pleads innocence, but there is too much evidence to the contrary and his is given the death penalty. Meanwhile his lover remains determined to prove him innocent and capture the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Erich Von Stroheim, (more)
- 1933
Andre Beucler directed this German romantic comedy, filmed in two languages and released overseas in French. Brigitte Helm stars as a sophisticated jewel thief who escapes to Spain with an expensive stolen necklace then gets involved with a naive advertising executive (Jean Gabin) who becomes her unsuspecting dupe. The film is nothing special, but is worth seeing for the cast alone. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Brigitte Helm, (more)
- 1930
Veteran filmmaker Maurice Tourneur made his talking-picture bow with 1930's Accusee - Levez Vous (Accused - Stand Up) The story opens during rehearsals of a Parisian musical revue. The star, a fading actress hoping for a comeback, inaugurates a romance with the male half of a knife-throwing act. The man's female partner, overhearing the cooing couple, vows revenge on the actress. Sure enough, the star is killed onstage in the midst of a comedy sketch, with a knife sticking in her back. But is the "obviously" guilty party really the killer? And why was a gunshot heard at the moment the star fell dead? Perhaps the accused woman's defense attorney has the answer when he calls upon the theater's janitor to testify... Reviewers in 1930 cited the resemblances between Accusee-Levez Vous and the early Norma Shearer talker The Trial of Mary Dugan, though the French film was based on a novel by Jean Jose Frappa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Gaby Morlay, (more)
