Françoise Arnoul Movies

Set in fin de siecle Paris, La Maison Bonnadieu stars Bernard Blier as a middle-aged bourgeois husband named Felix. Much to his discomfort, Felix learns that his wife Gabrielle (Danielle Darrieux) is carrying on with a young man--a very young man. Rather than express outrage, Felix decides that there's something lacking in him. He spends the rest of the picture trying to keep his wife by altering his own personality and outlook. La Maison Bonnadieu managed to secure good American bookings on the strength of Danielle Darrieux's star appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jean-Pierre (Jean-Pierre Pascal) is the foreman of the lumber empire managed by a powerful family. The family's daughter Christine (Francoise Arnoul), sent to England as punishment for an indiscretion, returns to their forest home. It is a foregone conclusion that Jean-Pierre and Christine will fall in love, despite violent opposition from her aristocratic aunt (Marcelle Arnold). It turns out that the aunt is acting out of something other than social propriety: it was her lover who'd dallied with Christine before the girl's banishment to England. Advertised as another "naughty" Gallic romantic drama when released in the U.S., Le Foret D'Adieu is actually quite chaste in the treatment of its storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The unbeatable combination of star Fernandel and director Henri Verneuil strikes again with Le Fruit Defendu (Forbidden Fruit). Fernandel plays a rural doctor, trapped in a dull, uneventful marriage. During a visit to the city, the doctor falls for a young lady (Francoise Arnoul) of very loose morals. Unwilling to relinquish this affair upon returning home, the doc works out a clever scheme whereby he can install the girl in his own home without arousing the suspicions of his wife (Claude Nollier) . How he does this, and how he's finally caught, is handled in a hilarious but scrupulously tasteful fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Les Amants de Toledo was filmed in four different versions: French, Spanish, Italian and English. The cast, however, remained constant throughout. Pedro Armendariz stars as Don Blas, the seemingly corrupt police chief of Toledo, Spain. When Ines (Alida Valli), the girl friend of condemned insurrectionist Fernando (Gerard Landry), pleads for her lover's life, Don Blas shows mercy--if Ines will agree to marry him. Theirs is a hate-hate relationship until, unexpectedly, Don Blas shows himself to have a glimmer of humanity. Now in love with her husband, Ines is in a quandary when Fernando re-enters her life. Filmed in early 1952, the English-language version of Les Amants de Toledo, retitled Lovers of Toledo, was made available in the U.S. the following year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The matchless French farceur Fernandel essays six different roles in The Sheep Has Five Legs. We first see the horse-faced one as an elderly wine grower, looking forward to an upcoming family reunion with mixed emotions. One by one, the other five Fernandels make their appearances; these are the wine-grower's sons, each one a small masterpiece of comic characterization. Despite an overreliance on dialogue, the film's humor translates quite well to non-French audiences. The film's original title was Le Mouton a Cinq Pattes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Franciolin) FI An all-star lineup of actors and directors was responsible for the omnibus feature Secrets D'Alcove. The film is made up of four separate playlets; the only "character" common to the four stories is a huge bed. The characters whose behavior is governed by being in close proximity of this bed include a soldier (Richard Todd), a philanderer (Vittorio de Sica), a professional co-respondent (Dawn Addams), a couresan (Martine Carol) and a truckdriver (Mouloudji). Naturally, the screenplay contrives to have the film's female characters appear as underdressed as possible, none more so than the curvaceous Martine Carol. The basic premise of Secrets D'Alcove was later adopted, after a fashion, by the American TV anthology series Love American Style (1979-72). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Henri Verneuil co-adapted Des Gens Sans Importance from a novel by Serge Groussard. The title translates to People of No Importance, an all-too-apt description for the film's cast of characters. Jean Gabin plays an aging, world-weary truckdriver who falls in love with restaurant counter-girl Francoise Arnoul. For the first time in his life, Gabin has found true happiness, but Fate isn't about to let him off so easily. The film's tragic ending and defeatist characterizations rather limited the appeal of Des Gens Sans Importance in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Les Amants du Tage (The Lovers of Tage) was based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. Daniel Gelin plays a soldier who is acquitted after committing a crime of passion. Relocating to Lisbon, and still feeling remorse over his impulsive killing of his faithless wife, Gelin manages to find love in the form of gorgeous widow Francoise Arnoul. Alas, it turns out that Arnoul has a sordid past of her own, leaving our hero sadder but wiser. Trevor Howard, whose presence in this essentially Gallic entertainment comes as a surprise, plays the relentless police inspector who exposes the seemingly virtuous Arnoul. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer/director Sacha Guitry's contribution to the 1956 film season was the free-flowing historical pageant Si Paris Nous Etait Conte (If Paris Were Told to Us). Guitry himself appears as the ghost of King Louis XI, who relates the story of Paris to a group of fascinated modern-day students. As usual, Guitry manages to "humanize" history by depicting the great men and women of France in amusing warts-and-all fashion. Symbolizing the indomitable spirit of Paris is Robert Lamoureaux as Latude, a prisoner of the Bastille who repeatedly tries to escape, and just as repeatedly is captured and thrown back in jail. A note of pathos is provided by Jacques de Feraudy as the dying Voltaire. Though Sacha Guitry suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair throughout much of the filming of Si Paris Nous Etait Conte, he still had two more films left in him before his death in 1957--just 10 days after Bastille Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roger Vadim's second directorial project was Sait-On Jamais, which was released in English-speaking countries as Does One Ever Know and No Sun in Venice. Set in Italy, this romantic suspenser is inventively paced to the musical improvisations of the Modern Jazz Quartet. On a Venetian holiday, a French journalist (Christian Marquand) meets and subsequently beds a mysterious beauty (Francoise Arnoul). Before long, the journalist is mixed up with the woman's ex-lover, a neurotic hoodlum (Robert Hossein) in the employ of a depraved Austrian baron (O.E. Hasse). Greed rears its ugly head when the hood bumps off the baron while searching for the latter's hidden millions. It all ends in a thrilling rooftop chase at the baron's palatial estate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide