Fernand Gravey Movies

Marie (Marthe Keller) is the most beautiful girl in her small village. She enters a beauty contest in a nearby town and wins the top prize. Broderick (Bert Convey) is the young American businessman who falls in love with the newly crowned beauty queen. She agrees to marry him but states she cannot leave her village behind her. He buys the entire village and moves them all to a small island near Manhattan. Try as they may, the simple villagers cannot adjust to the turbulence of the big city with the Statue of Liberty always looming in the background. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Taken from the popular play by Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman Of Chaillot has an international all-star cast, but the final result falls short despite the talents of the celebrated thespians. The madwoman in question is the extremely eccentric Countess Aurelia (Katherine Hepburn). Roderick (Richard Chamberlain) is the peace-loving activist who, along with a local rag picker (Danny Kaye), warns the Countess of a plot to destroy the city. A quartet of villains led by the Chairman (Yul Brynner) are after the oil reserves that bubble under the water supply. Along with the Broker (Charles Boyer), the Commissar (Oscar Homolka), and the Prospector (Donald Pleasence), the evil developers plan to secure the oil rights to the region with or without the consent of the unsuspecting public. The Countess invites Josephine (Dame Edith Evans) to judge the villains, who are locked in the Countess's cellar for their crimes against the people of Paris in this lethargic film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Sarita Montiel and Ferdinand Gravey co-star in this melodrama. A cabaret singer is lured into slavery when she signs on for a tour of the Middle East. After escaping the sheik's harem, she is saved by an elderly doctor whose handsome son falls in love with the girl once she is safely back in Paris. This was the last film for director Ladislao Vajda, who died just before the feature was completed. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The French Photo Finish doesn't get much play these days, but it used to be a Late Late Show perennial in the 1960s. Fernand Gravey and Jean Richard play a pair of con artists who've run out of suckers. They decide to try their luck at the track, where they hatch an intricate scheme involving the fixing of the race results. It's an almost perfect caper, but be prepared for a slyly ironic finale. Filmed in 1957, Photo Finish didn't make the American theatrical rounds until 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Treize a Table (Thirteen at Table) was based on the hit play by Marc Gilbert Sauvajon. Micheline Presle stars as a woman suffering from Triskadecaphobia -- fear of the number 13. No matter how hard she tries, Micheline cannot avoid the "fatal" number, even in the safety of her own home. The humor arises from the heroine's efforts to make certain that she never has 13 guests at her dinner table -- even if it means inviting an ex-lover to sit in on one occasion. Fernand Gravey co-stars as the former swain, while Mischa Auer offers another of his "professional grouch" routines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles M'Etait Conte (If Versailles Were Told to Me) is best known by its American title Royal Affairs in Versailles. In addtion to writing and directed the film, Guitry reserves for himself the plum role of Louis XIV. Concentrating on the palace of Versailles over a period of 300 years, the storyline concentrates on the various amorous and political intrigues of three French kings. The plot manages to wend its way through the French revolution, coming to a halt in "the present". The star-studded supporting cast includes Jean Marais as Louis XV, Claudette Colbert as Mme. Montespan, Micheline Presle as Mme. Pompadour, and, best of all, Orson Welles as a gouty Ben Franklin. Most currently available prints of Si Versailles M'Etait Conte are severely edited, and fail to do justice to the rich Eastmancolor hues of the original version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

European film favorite Fernand Gravey not only starred in Le Plus Heurs des Hommes, but also co-adapted the script from Jean Guitton's play. The title translates to The Happiest of Men, which hardly describes Gravey's character, an innocent bystander named Pierre. Walking into a bookshop, Pierre witnesses what seems to be a murder. But the victim (Jean-Claude Pascal) isn't really dead; he's staged the whole scene to divest himself of an inconvenient mistress. Within a few minutes, however, Pierre has killed the "corpse" for real. Why he does this could be explained here, but that would spoil the fun to be found in this curious comedy-drama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fernard Gravet may look like a natural-born philanderer in Ma Femma est Formidable, but appearances are deceiving. Condemned without evidence as a "rake" by his dimwitted wife Sylvia (Sophie Desmarets) and his monstrous in-laws, Raymond Corbier (Gravet) is further bedeviled by the unwarranted advances of man-chasing Marguerite Rival (Simone Valere). Before long, the whole melange looks like a Leon Errol 2-reeler, complete with fake suicides, slapstick and a wisecracking parrot. While it may not seem like such a much to American viewers, Ma Femme est Formidable was a hit in France; in fact, it won several awards at various French film festivals. The film was directed by Andre Hunebelle, who was undoubtedly gratified that he gave up his previous occupation of glassmaker when the box-office take began rolling in. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eddie Roback (Dane Clark), an American army deserter turned criminal, is going to trial in Paris after a ten-month delay when he is sprung on his way to court in a pitched gun battle. A manhunt ensues with the police just a few paces behind, including a nicely staged scene in a department store in which Roback manages to improvise an escape, only to be standing by across the street from his intended destination as his waiting confederates are taken by the police. Investigators try to get ahead of him by reaching out his girlfriend, Denise Vernon (Simone Signoret). Feigning innocence, she makes contact with the wounded Roback, who is turned away by his former associates in his attempts to find shelter and escape. She eventually finds him a hiding place in the studio of Max Salva, a lecherous photographer with a sadistic streak, who may have given Roback up to the police. Denise tries to find him a way out of the country, with money from an American writer, Frank Clinton (Robert Duke), while the police slowly catch on to Roback's whereabouts, drawing the net ever closer. Several battles of wits unfold at once, drawing the viewer in, across intertwining, overlapping plot elements. Even nature raises its hand against Roback as a crippling fog slows his seemingly easy escape to Belgium. All of the players are drawn together for a final confrontation that is every bit as violent as anything seen in American crime films of the period. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide