Tania Fedor Movies

Canadian producer/ director/ writer Claude Jutra also cast himself as the star of his Take It All. He plays a writer who has an affair with gorgeous black model Johanne. She becomes pregnant, but Jutra wants nothing to do with marriage. Johanne loses the baby, "solving" the problem. When Jutra filmed Take It All (originally A Tout Prendre) in 1962, he was allegedly going through a personal situation much like the one in the film. The dialogue was reportedly made up by the actors as they went along; that we can believe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blonde French sex symbol Martine Carol is incongruously cast as the title character in Lucrece Borgia. The bloody excesses of the incestuous Borgia family during the Renaissance are given ample screen time, albeit within the bounds of reasonably good taste. Mexico's Pedro Armendariz struts and frets as the cruelly ambitious Cesar Borgia, who forces his sister Lucrece into a marriage of convenience. Depicted with historical accuracy as a relatively innocent victim of circumstance, Lucrece never utilizes poison as a weapon in the course of the film, though she does manage to inflict bodily injury on Cesar when the latter threatens her romance with the handsome Aragon (Massimo Serato). The highlight of Lucrece Borgia was Martine Carol's nude bathing scene, only a portion of which made it to American theatre screens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally La Chemineau, The Open Road is a generally satisfying if overlong rural drama. Returning after a 20-year absence, a shabby vagabond (Victor Francen) discovers that his son has been raised to believe that another man is his natural father. At present, the boy is involved in a romance with a girl who doesn't meet with his mother's approval. The Vagabond straightens out everyone's problems without ever revealing his true identity. The Open Road bears more than a passing resemblance to Jubilo, a popular Will Rogers vehicle of the silent era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bar du Sud finds Charles Vanel in his usual role as a stern French colonial officer. Vanel's nemesis this time is gun-runner Jean Galland, who uses his own wife Tania Fedor to keep Vanel off his trail. Unaware of her husband's nefariousness, Fedor is also unlearned in the ways of sexual intrigue. This enables Vanel to foil the duplicitous Galland, while the disillusioned Fedor heads back to Paris for a divorce. It's hardly surprising who winds up in a romantic clinch at fadeout time. A typically complex espionage melodrama, Bar du Sud didn't fare too well when it was translated into English (which hardly cleared up the film's more obtuse plot points). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The venerable silent-serial menace Fantomas was revived on-screen in 1932 by globetrotting filmmaker Paul Fejos. Back to his old tricks, the hooded, black-clad Fantomas goes around robbing from the rich and giving to himself, though he's not quite as homicidally inclined here as he'd been in his earlier film appearances. Jean Galland stars as the elusive "hero," while Thomy Bourdelle plays the detective who dedicates his life to bringing Fantomas to justice. Director Fejos doesn't miss a trick, running through a gamut that includes clutching hands and screams in the dark. An English-dubbed version of Fantomas was released in the U.S. in 1934. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On holiday in a mythical Slavic country, a French tourist is inveigled into posing as the husband of a female revolutionary. As a result, our luckless hero winds up in hot water with the police, while the woman runs off with a younger man. This fellow is cajoled into aiding the heroine in an assassination attempt on the Emperor. A good rule of thumb might be "Stay AWAY from that woman!" Based on a best-selling novel, Passeport 13,444 was reportedly faithful to its source, though that didn't necessarily make for a better movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His Glorious Night, the first talkie version of Ferenc Molnar's Olympia, is remembered today as the film that ruined John Gilbert. Legend has it that silent-screen-idol Gilbert's voice recorded so badly that audiences laughed out loud when he declared his love for Catherine Dale Owen, though this derision had more to do with his awful dialogue than his (minimal) vocal inadequacies. At any rate, the Molnar original was simultaneously filmed in a Spanish, German, and French-language version; the first two retained the title Olympia, while the French adaptation was titled Si L'Empereur Savait Ca (If The Emperor Only Knew). Andre Luguet steps into the John Gilbert role as Captain Kovacs, a dashing military officer in love with the beautiful daughter (Tania Fedor) of a high-born general (she was a Princess in the original, and she was played by Catherine Dale Owen). The girl's mother, who has slated her daughter to marry a Prince, breaks up the romance, whereupon Kovacs threatens to publicly impugn the heroine's reputation if he isn't permitted a night alone with her before the wedding. He gets what he wants, only to prove that he's really an honorable man after all. Both the French and German versions of Olympia were directed by Jacques Feyder; the property was remade in 1960 as A Breath of Scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide