Palau Movies
The French/Italian/British King of Hearts (Le Roi de Coeur) takes place during World War I, but it might as well have been the Vietnamese conflict so far as its youthful "core" audience was concerned. Overacting outrageously, Adolfo Celi plays British colonel Alexander MacBibenbrook, who orders mild-mannered Scotsman Pvt. Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) to undertake a life-or-death mission in a tiny French village. While evacuating the town, the Germans have left behind a time bomb that will explode at midnight; Plumpick must defuse that bomb. Upon his arrival in town, Plumpick discovers that it is far from deserted. A group of inmates from the local insane asylum, left behind during the evacuation, have claimed the village for their own. Knocked unconscious, Plumpick awakens to learn that he has been crowned "King of Hearts" by the gentle lunatics. None of the inmates pay any heed to Plumpick's warnings about impending doom, and when he attempts to lead them out of town, they are terrified at the prospect and scurry back to the "safety" of the village. Plumpick is finally able to render the bomb useless, whereupon the grateful inmates decide to stage a three-year celebration. When Plumpick tries to leave, he is kidnapped by the loonies at the behest of beautiful inmate Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold), who has fallen in love with him. Bound and gagged, Plumpick watches helplessly as the Germans and the British troops kill each other off in comic-opera fashion. Finally set free, Plumpick weighs the horrible insanity of war against the more benign brand of lunacy represented by the inmates. The final image -- of a nude Plumpick carrying a birdcage, knocking on the doors of the asylum, and demanding that he be "accepted" -- was reproduced for the print ads of King of Hearts, effectively giving away the ending. An essential "date" film of the 1970s, King of Hearts was often released to campus movie houses in tandem with a pair of cult-favorite short subjects, the animated Bambi Meets Godzilla and Lenny Bruce's Thank You Masked Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold, (more)
- 1960
The joie de vivre of a young Parisian provides the basis for this romantic tale. The hero truly loves everything about life. He is especially fond of young women with he frequently falls in love. The lad lives with his supportive uncle, his brother, and his brother's wife, a former lover of the young man. Also living in the manse is a maid, four enormous dogs, and the man's two illegitimate children whom he adores. His life takes a downward turn when he meets an industrialist's lovely wife and falls in love with her. Unfortunately she does not return his affections. The devastated fellow reacts by playing sad songs on his bassoon while he waits for death. This eccentric behavior charms the woman into changing her mind and running off with him. His restored exuberance is again dampened when he discovers that this beautiful woman is not only a whiner, she is stone cold dead in bed. At the end of the film the fellow is seen flitting off with a new love, a tender young waitress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Jean-Pierre Cassel, (more)
- 1956
Marguerite de la Nuit is filmmaker Claude Autant-Lara's spin on the "Faust" legend. Though updated to 1925, the story of the ageing pedant who sells his soul to Satan in exchange for youth and knowledge is fairly faithful to the Goethe original. The one major alteration is Satan's decision to "go easy" on the long-suffering Marguerite (played by Michele Morgan). His Satanic Majesty is portrayed with a surfeit of wry Gallic charm by Yves Montand. As Autant-Lara's follow-up to his classic Le Rouge et le Noir, Marguerite de la Nuit cannot help but disappoint; on its own, however, it's not bad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Yves Montand, (more)
- 1952
Director René Clair insisted that his 1952 production Beauties of the Night (Les Belles du Nuit) was intended as a comic variation on Griffith's multipart Intolerance (1916). The Clair film deals with a disillusioned music teacher (Gérard Philipe) who dreams of the beautiful women of history, envisioning himself as the central male figure in each dream. The imaginary ladies (including such internationally famous lovelies as Martine Carol and Gina Lollobrigida) begin converging on the hero all at once, much to the delight of both Philipe and the audience. At several junctures, Clair revives a technique from his earliest talkies by having the characters sing their lines and thoughts rather than speaking them. These treasured musical moments are somewhat dissipated when Beauties of the Night is seen in an edited, redubbed American print -- which also "fudges" the film's notorious Gina Lollobrigida nude scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Martine Carol, (more)
- 1947
Released in France as Le Diable au Corps, The Devil in the Flesh stars Micheline Presle as a nurse at a French military hospital during World War I. Gerard Philipe costars as a high school student who carries a torch for the older Presle. Under pressure from her parents to marry, Presle begins an affair with the boy, but gives up on him when he proves to be far too immature and jealous for her tastes. After a deliberately inconsiderate act on Philipe's part, Presle opts for a loveless marriage with a soldier who is about to head for the front. When Philipe selfishly reenters her life, she resumes the affair, becoming pregnant by the boy. The end result of Philipe's callous behavior is tragedy for all concerned. The Devil in the Flesh is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Raymond Radiguet, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 20. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Micheline Presle, Gérard Philipe, (more)
- 1945
This French morality play is fraught with cynical undertones as it tells the tale of a group of French people from every social strata trying to flee the Nazis who have just invaded Paris. En route they meet a cruel German officer who threatens to kill the others if the heroine Presle refuses to sleep with him. The others, fearing for their own lives, force her to submit. Soon afterward another enemy officer makes the same threat. The woman, disgusted by the selfishness of her companions, decides that she has had enough and kills the would-be rapist, causing her companions all sorts of problems. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Micheline Presle, Louis Salou, (more)
- 1943
Despite the exigencies of the Nazi occupation of France, veteran filmmaker Maurice Tourneur managed to turn out a classic psychological horror film, La Main du Diable (The Devil's Hand). A variation of the Faust legend, the film's "Mephistopheles" is a smarmy Vichy-government civil servant, brilliantly played by Palau. When struggling artist Pierre Fresnay sells his soul, Palau binds the bargain by giving the artist a severed, withered, yet "living" human hand. Years later, Pierre, on the verge of death, is forced to learn the identity of the man from whom the hand was stolen, lest he burn in eternal damnation. The film's highlight is a nocturnal gathering of all the previous owners of the hand who unfold their tales of woe to the beleaguered Pierre. Eventually, the hand is returned to its rightful owner, an ending that is at once happy and tragic. Like most of Tourneur's best works, The Devil's Hand is far better seen than described (prints are available, though most are in deplorable condition). Completed in 1942, the film finally made it to the U.S. several years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Antoine Balpêtré, (more)
A small French village is plagued by a poison-pen writer, whose principal target is Doctor Germain (Pierre Fresnay). The vitriolic letters wreak so much havoc that soon neighbor turns upon neighbor. Eventually, even the doctor himself becomes one of the suspects, as the townspeople are driven to commit paranoia-fueled crimes and suicides. The actual culprit is revealed to be one of the least likely candidates. Though it can now be seen to be a subliminal indictment of the paranoia fomented by the Nazi occupation of France, Le Corbeau (aka The Raven) was condemned as unpatriotic after the liberation, and director Henri-Georges Clouzot was banned from filmmaking until 1947. Based on a story by Clouzot and Louis Chavance, Le Corbeau was remade in Hollywood by Otto Preminger as The 13th Letter (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Fresnay, Pierre Larquey, (more)
- 1939
The same year that the great European actor Harry Baur played mad Czar Paul I in Le Patriote, he also played another celebrated Russian looney in Rasputin (original title: La Tragedie Imperiale). Unlike most interpretations of the infamous peasant-monk, Baur's Rasputin is a multifaceted character, as much saint as sinner. He is shown to be sincere in his belief that his self-styled magic powers are best utilized in the service of Czar Nicholas and the Royal Family. Alas, Rasputin is also prone to a multitude of human frailties, notably the temptation to allow absolute power to corrupt him absolutely. Whatever one might think of the life of Rasputin, one cannot deny that he left that life in a grostequely spectacular fashion, which Baur and director Marcel L'Herbier recreate in all its vividly gory splendor. Rasputin was based on a novel by Alfred Neumann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Baur, Marcelle Chantal, (more)
- 1938
Crossroads is the English title for Carrefour, directed in France by German-born Kurt (later Curtis) Bernhardt. Suzy Prin and Jules Berry star in this master blend of amnesia, romance and deceit. A respected French diplomat is blackmailed by criminals, who insist that the diplomat, who'd once suffered a loss of memory, had been a crook in his previous "life". When Kurt Bernhardt emigrated to the US, he was signed by Warner Bros., thus had no opportunity to work on MGM's remake of Carrefour (again titled Crossroads) starring William Powell, Hedy Lamarr and Basil Rathbone. The story would be adapted a third time for the 1950 British melodrama Dead Man's Shoes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jules Berry, Charles Vanel, (more)
- 1937
La Dame de Pique is the first talkie version of the frequently filmed Alexander Pushkin parable The Queen of Spades. Pierre Blanchar stars as Hermann, an officer in the Russian army whose chronic gambling brings him in contact with a wealthy old countess (Marguerite Moreno) known as "La Dame de Pique." Fascinated by the countess' incredible luck at the gaming tables, Hermann is determined to learn her secret. With the help of the old woman's niece (Madeleine Ozeray), Hermann gains access to the Countess's boudoir and tries to romance the secret out of her. When this fails, he produces a gun and demands that she tell all -- whereupon the Countess falls dead from a heart attack. From this point on, Hermann's own doom is sealed. The most famous version of the Pushkin original was filmed 12 years later, with Anton Walbrook as the foolhardy protagonist and Edith Evans as the enigmatic Queen of Spades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Moreno, Madeleine Ozeray, (more)
- 1936
In this comedy that takes a sharp poke at problems within the medical profession, Dr. Knock opens a practice in a small village. He buys it from a conniving old physician who thinks he really duped the earnest young medic. The young doc is not so easily fooled. Using a wide variety of modern equipment and fancy doctor talk, he soon scares the ignorant villagers into believing that they are all very sick with a wide assortment of strange illnesses. His ruse works and soon his practice is booming. The old doc is shocked. He returns to the village to expose the young quack. Unfortunately after listening to the silver-tongued medic, the older man is convinced that he too is terribly ill. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jouvet, Palau, (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
Mario (Fernard Gravey), a rough-hewn sheepherder, unexpectedly finds success as a Parisian hairdresser. Having never learned the social graces, Mario treats his female customers like sheep and shears their hair like wool -- and do they love it! Rising to the top of his profession, the uncouth hero is finally tamed by the beautiful Alene (Mona Goya), who handles Mario just as rudely as he does his customers. Not so much a satire as a slapstick lampoon, Coiffeur pour Dames proved an enormous success thanks in no small part to the built-in appeal of star Fernand Gravey. The film was produced at the Joinville studios of Paramount Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mona Goya, Fernand Gravey, (more)
- 1931
Rien Que la Verite is the French-language version of the 1929 Paramount comedy Nothing but the Truth. Saint Granier replaces Richard Dix as Bob, an up-and-coming young attorney who bets $10,000 that he can tell the absolute truth for 24 hours. As a result, he manages to insult practically everyone within a radius of 100 miles, including his own fiancee, Nicole (Meg Lemonier) -- whose own father is one of the three individuals who dreamed up the wager. How Bob manages to avoid the booby traps set up to make him lose his bet -- and to set things right with those he's offended once the 24 hours is up -- is one of the cleverest payoffs in movie-comedy history. Remade in 1941 as a Bob Hope vehicle, Nothing but the Truth showed up again in modified form as the 1997 Jim Carrey comedy Liar Liar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Etchepare, Armand Lurville, (more)
