Fernand Gravey Movies

The first of two film versions of Noel Coward's operetta, 1933's Bitter Sweet stars British favorite Anna Neagle and continental star Fernand Graavey (who spelled his name "Gravet" in Hollywood). The wisp of a plot finds Victorian Neagle persuading Graavey to march her to the altar. A brilliant musician, Graavey is unfortunately also a chronic gambler. He is killed in a duel of honor, but his legacy lives on in his music. The already obscure 1933 Bitter Sweet was all but confined to oblivion by Hollywood's 1940 Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald version. The earlier film was produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whose long professional association with his star Anna Neagle culminated in marriage in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Alice Duer Miller play Come Out Of the Kitchen, the Paramount musical Honey was filmed in several foreign languages for European distribution. The French version, titled Cherie, starred Mono Goya and Saint-Granier in the roles originated by Nancy Carroll and Skeets Gallegher. Down on their luck, aristocratic Olivia and Charles Dangerfield are forced to rent out their ancestral mansion to nouveau riche Mrs. Falkner and her daughter Cora. Remaining in the house as the butler, Charles falls in love with Cora, while his sister Olivia (retained as Mrs. Falkner's maid) is likewise smitten by Cora's ex-fiancee Burton. For French consumption, Cherie makes time for the routines of popular Jewish dialect comedian Marc Hely, playing a character who didn't appear in the original Honey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fernand Gravey and Jacques Duby star as a pair of slick race track touts in need of some quick cash. Targetting rural rube Jean Richard as a patsy, the two sharpsters con him into putting up his hard-earned cash on a few sure things. Within what seems like seconds, Richard becomes wealthy by using his instincts, while the "clever" Gravey and Duby come a-cropper by playing the odds. If it's possible for a French film to be Runyonesque, then Courte Tete is that film. Though the title's "official" translation is By a Nose, Courte Tete was released to American TV as Photo Finish. ~ 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

In this elegant "caper" film, Audrey Hepburn stars as the daughter of a wealthy Parisian (Hugh Griffith), whose hobby is copying famous works of art. His replica of a famed Cellini sculpture is inadvertently displayed in an art museum, and he begins to worry that he'll lose his reputation once the experts evaluate the statuette. Audrey decides to rob the museum, and hires a burglar (Peter O'Toole) for that purpose. But the burglar is really a detective, who has every intention of arresting Audrey and her father when the deed is done. All style and little substance, How to Steal a Million is consummately acted by the stars, but the film is stolen hands-down by a "double take" reaction from French comic actor Moustache. The film was originally titled How to Steal a Million Dollars and Live Happily Ever After, which gave the whole game away and thus was pared down before release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love Sings is the English-language title of this Made-in-Germany-for-Frenchmen concoction. Pierre Bertin plays Claude, a grammar teacher forced by a series of cute plot devices to pose as a professor of music. He is then obliged to teach a talentless musical-comedy star how to sing, lest the star's husband pull his financial backing for the show in which his wife is appearing. Things look pretty grim when wifey leaves hubby in favor of a handsome Egyptian prince, but all ends happily for Claude, who ends up marrying the daughter of the man he's been impersonating. Director Robert Florey also helmed the German-language version of L'Amour Chante, Komm' Zu Mir Zum Rendezvous, and the Spanish version, El Professor de Mi Senora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pair of teenagers (Marina Vlady, Pierre-Michel Beck) face the trials of parenthood when the girl becomes pregnant. This melodramatic coming-of-age story features a lackluster screenplay by Franco Brusati, Vittorio Novarese, and director Lionello de Felice which paints most of the adults as judgmental and uncaring. Silvio Amadio's later Oltraggio al Pudore (1965) managed a more entertaining and even-handed treatment of similar subject matter. ~ Robert Firsching, 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

La Garconne was based on a once-scandalous novel by Victor Marguerite. Set in Paris in the 1920s, the film stars Andree Debar as a rebellious lass who believes that the "double standard" concerning men and women should be abolished. Thus she makes love to as many partners as she wishes, without ever falling in love. Eventually, of course, she finds a soul-mate for life, but not before a good time is had by practically all. La Garconne ran into some censorship interference in the U.S. because of a discreetly handled homosexual subtext. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide