Alfred Adam Movies
- 1950
In this comedy, a charming (at least he thinks so) king comes to Paris to sign a treaty and quickly learns more about French customs and temperament than he ever wanted to. When the senator he has come to see learns that the king is interested in his wife and mistress, the conniving fellow arranges it so he can have both of them. Following the signing of the treaty, the king, dreadfully pleased with himself, returns to his home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Though it took Maurice Chevalier a long time to regain his American popularity after WW II, he remained a favorite in France. In Le Roi, Chevalier stars as--what else?--a king. Making a goodwill visit to France during the era of the First Republic, the merry monarch stirs up trouble with the stauncher anti-royalists. Fortunately, he doesn't lose his head, but he does sacrifice his dignity to a well-aimed cream puff, administered by one Mme. Beaudrier (Sophie Desmarets) who is the wife of a diplomat (Alfred Adam). To avoid a scandal, the diplomat tries his best to get in the king's good graces--which, of course, results in plenty of boudoir shenanigans. Based on a nonmusical stage play, Le Roi manages to find a few opportunities for Maurice Chevalier to sing, which he does with his usual panache. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Ducaux, Sophie Desmarets, (more)
- 1946
A corrupt, lecherous farming son and the destruction he brings to his family is featured in this melodrama. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Bourvil, (more)
- 1945
Claude Autant-Lara's literally haunting romantic tale Sylvia and the Phantom stars Odette Joyeaux as Sylvia, an imaginative young girl who lives in an old French castle. Fascinated by a portrait of the lover of her deceased grandmother, Sylvia fantasizes about having a romance with the lover's ghost. On Sylvia's 16th birthday, her father decides to amuse the girl by having the "ghost" make an appearance, and to that end engages the services of three men--a valet, a ham actor and a burglar--to impersonate the wraith. Though confused by the fact that the ghost seemingly has three distinct personalities, Sylvia nonetheless falls in love with the burglar, the most handsome of the trio. Disillusioned upon learning of her father's subterfuge, Sylvia is unfortunately unresponsive when the real ghost (poignantly enacted by comedian Jacques Tati) makes a surprise appearance. Unfairly lambasted by American critics as "worthless," Sylvia and the Phantom has since taken its place in cinema history as one of Claude Autant-Lara's most beguiling works. The film was adapted from a play by Alfred Adam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Odette Joyeux, Julien Carette, (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)
- 1935
Released in France as La Kermesse Heroique, Carnival in Flanders is set during the long-ago war between the Dutch and Spanish. A tiny village in Flanders is invaded by Spanish troops. The townsfolk have heard of Spanish cruelties in other towns, and decide to deflect the vanquishers by playing dead. This isn't terribly effective (you have to take a breath once in a while), so the wife of the burgomaster tries to soften up the invaders with a lavish carnival. So successful is this venture that the Spaniards allow the village to escape being decimated, or even taxed. An award-winner many times over, Carnival in Flanders was banned in Germany; evidently, Goebbels caught on that director Jacques Feyder and scenarists Bernard Zimmer and Charles Spaak were drawing deliberate parallels between the Spanish and the then-burgeoning Nazis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Françoise Rosay, Jean Murat, (more)
